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Public Order

Anti-smuggling Operations

Smuggling across the Hong Kong-Mainland boundary remains a concern to the law. enforcement agencies. In 2016, 150 Hong Kong-Mainland smuggling attempts were detected, with 186 people arrested and $304 million worth of smuggled goods seized. Tablet computers, mobile phones and computer central processing units were the main items smuggled into the Mainland. Cigarettes, which are cheaper on the Mainland, and counterfeit goods were often smuggled into Hong Kong.

The Customs and Excise Department collaborates with other law enforcement agencies to combat smuggling through intelligence exchange and parallel operations. It works closely with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department to detect and prevent the smuggling of food and animals.

Fire Services Department

The Fire Services Department 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 employs 9,561 uniformed and 740 civilian members and has well-trained personnel, advanced communications systems and modern equipment.

Firefighting and Rescue

Of the 38,112 fire calls received in 2016, nine were classified as major fires of No 3 alarm or above. Accidents in the process of cooking constituted the major cause of fires, accounting for 1,613 cases. Careless handling or disposal of lighted materials, such as cigarette ends, matches and candles, caused 774 fires, while disposal of joss sticks caused 144 fires. Unwanted alarms, triggered mainly by faulty automatic alarm systems, contributed about 76 per cent of the total number of fire calls.

The department also provides rescue services for traffic accidents, shipwrecks, people trapped in lifts or locked in rooms, gas leakages, building collapses, floods, landslides, industrial accidents and attempts to jump from a height. The department handled 36,593 such special service calls in 2016.

Ambulance Services

The department's Ambulance Command handled 773,322 calls in 2016, an average of 2,113 calls per day.

Its 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 by phone on some easily identified sicknesses and injuries, such as general bleeding, bone fractures and limb dislocations, burns, convulsion, heat exposure and hypothermia, after dispatching an

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