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Public Order

Fire Services Department

The Fire Services Department (FSD) fights fires, protects life and property in the event of fires and other calamities, provides emergency ambulance services, and formulates and enforces fire safety policies and measures. The department has 9,443 uniformed and 720 civilian members and has well-trained personnel, advanced communications systems, and modern equipment and appliances.

Fire-fighting and Rescue

Of the 36,335 fire calls received in 2014, six were classified as major fires of No 3 alarm and above. Careless handling of lighted items or accidents in the process of cooking were the major cause of fires, accounting for 1,597 cases. Careless handling or disposal of lighted materials, such as cigarette ends, matches and candles caused 1,047 fires, while electrical faults caused 799 fires. Unwanted alarms, triggered mainly by faulty automatic alarm systems, contributed to about 74 per cent of the total number of fire calls.

The department also provides a wide range of rescue services for incidents such as traffic accidents, shipwrecks, people trapped in elevators or locked in rooms, gas leakages, house collapses, flooding, landslides, industrial accidents and attempts by people to jump from heights. The department handled 33,420 such special service calls in 2014.

Ambulance Services

The Ambulance Command handled 747,437 calls in 2014, an average of 2,048 calls per day.

The department's ambulance fleet is manned by paramedics. All emergency ambulances and emergency medical assistant motorcycles are fully equipped with life-support equipment such as automated external defibrillators and selected drugs for conditions including diabetes, shock, heart attack, shortness of breath and drug overdose. To enhance the emergency ambulance service, the department provides simple Post-dispatch Advice (PDA) by phone on some easily identified conditions (general bleeding, bone fractures/dislocation to limbs, burns, convulsion, heat exposure and hypothermia) after dispatching an ambulance to the scene. The PDA includes simple first-aid and time-saving advice to facilitate the provision of prompt medical assistance to patients.

The department continues to train front-line firemen to become first responders to provide basic life-saving support to casualties and patients while ambulance crews are on their way to the scene. In 2014, first responders attended to 44,676 calls.

Communications

The Fire Services Communications Centre, manned round-the-clock and equipped with the Third Generation Mobilising System, is responsible for mobilising all fire-fighting and ambulance resources to provide timely fire and ambulance services to the community. The centre also receives complaints about fire hazards and dangerous goods and acts as an emergency co- ordinator for other government departments and public utilities during large-scale emergencies or major calamities.

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