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Public Order

The department has well-trained personnel, advanced communications systems and modern equipment. As at 31 December, it employed 10,417 uniformed and 795 civilian members, and operated 1,140 fire appliances, ambulances and supporting vehicles and 25 fire vessels.

Firefighting and Rescue

Of the 33,632 fire calls received in 2020, four were classified as major fires and triggered the No 3 alarm. Accidents while cooking were the major cause of fires, accounting for 1,058 cases. General electrical faults caused 739 fires, while the careless handling or disposal of lighted materials, such as cigarette ends, matches and candles, caused 631 fires. False alarms, triggered mainly by faulty automatic alarm systems, made up 71.3 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, leakages of gas or other hazardous materials, building collapses, floods, landslides, industrial accidents, people stranded on hillsides and attempts to jump from a height. It handled 32,358 such calls in 2020.

Ambulance Services

The department's Ambulance Command operates a fleet of emergency ambulances, rapid response vehicles and emergency medical assistant motorcycles manned by paramedics. All the vehicles 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, convulsion, cardiac arrest, anaphylaxis and drug overdose. The Ambulance Command handled a daily average of 1,885 calls in 2020.

The department trains front-line firefighters to become first responders who can provide basic life support to casualties and patients before the arrival of an ambulance crew. In 2020, first responders responded to 24,881 cases.

Communications

The 24-hour Fire Services Communications Centre mobilises all firefighting and ambulance resources to provide timely services. It also receives complaints about fire hazards and dangerous goods, and acts as an emergency coordinator for other government departments and public utilities during major emergencies. The centre provides post-dispatch advice to callers over the phone on more than 30 types of injuries and sicknesses, including burns, cardiac arrest, haemorrhage and childbirth, after dispatching ambulances. Callers receive immediate, comprehensive and appropriate advice to help stabilise patients based on their conditions before the ambulance crew arrives.

At the scene of an incident, a digital trunked radio system is used to ensure effective and efficient radio communication.

Fire Safety

The Fire Safety Command draws up fire safety policies and formulates fire safety measures for buildings and mass transit systems. It devotes much effort to upgrading fire safety in old

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