9,578 buildings have not complied with Hong Kong fire safety orders, with a fifth in same district as blaze-hit property
- Buildings Department says 9,578 properties have failed to obey orders to improve fire safety as of December last year, with compliance rate at about 37 per cent
- One-fifth of those buildings are located in Yau Tsim Mong, home to 60-year-old New Lucky House where blaze killed five and injured 43 others
More than 9,500 buildings in Hong Kong have not complied with fire safety orders, with one-fifth located in the same district as a 60-year-old property hit by a deadly blaze this week, prompting calls for legislative work to be sped up to ensure old structures are safe.
The scale of non-compliance was revealed following the blaze, which killed five people and injured 43 others in Yau Ma Tei on Wednesday, with the Buildings Department disclosing on Friday that more than 60 per cent of the orders it and the fire service had issued were not observed.
The department said on Wednesday night that blaze-hit New Lucky House had failed to comply with orders to upgrade fire safety installations issued 16 years ago, a “common” problem, according to a surveying industry representative.
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Kenny Tse Chi-kin, chairman of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors’ building policy panel, said scattered ownership, especially in mixed-use old buildings like New Lucky House, had made compliance with fire safety and maintenance orders difficult.
“They involve both residents and business operators. It will be difficult to reach a consensus. The stores may have been affected by the economy and find it hard to pay for maintenance,” Tse said on Friday.
Under the Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance, both the Buildings Department and the Fire Services Department inspect target buildings, including mixed-use and residential properties built before 1987. They can issue a “fire safety direction” to building owners, ordering them to upgrade equipment to current standards.
Among the 9,578 properties that had failed to comply with fire safety orders issued by the Buildings Department as of December last year, Yau Tsim Mong district, where New Lucky House is located, had the largest number of them, 1,843.
Three other old districts – Sham Shui Po, Central and Western, and Kowloon City – had 1,267, 1,076 and 1,020 such buildings respectively.
The Buildings Department said on Friday that as of December 31, the average compliance rate for orders both it and the Fire Services Department had issued was about 37 per cent.
Buildings authorities issued around 80,000 orders, with 26,000 resolved. The Fire Services Department made 290,000 orders covering 10,400 buildings, and more than 110,000, or 38 per cent, had been complied with as of late March this year.
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The department said anyone who, without reasonable excuse, failed to comply with an order would commit an offence and be liable to a HK$25,000 (US$3,190) fine and a further HK$2,500 for each day the situation remained unresolved.
The government last December submitted a proposal to the legislature to amend the ordinance to allow authorities to carry out fire safety improvement work on buildings where the owners failed to comply with orders, and recover the costs from them, with a surcharge of no more than 20 per cent when completed.
Tse, the surveyor, urged authorities to speed up the bill drafting work given the tragedy in Yau Ma Tei and step up inspections at high-risk structures, such as composite buildings and stand-alone blocks.
He said the government had to set up a mandatory maintenance fund in every block so owners could save money for improvement work and tackle the issue in the long run.
Yau Tsim Mong district councillor Chris Ip Ngo-tung also urged the government to step up efforts in amending the ordinance.
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He noted that some owners were willing to comply with orders but found it too costly and difficult to locate contractors, and he suggested the government provide a maintenance price list for their reference.
The Fire Services Department said its investigation had found damaged safety doors designed to prevent smoke from spreading on 11 of New Lucky House’s 16 floors, while suspected illegal structures and subdivided flats were also discovered.
Meanwhile, most residents were allowed to return home on Friday, despite some floors still having no electricity and freshwater supply.
Some residents said firefighters had broken into flats to look for anyone who might be trapped during the fire but police had since installed new locks for them.
Kino Au, 30, who works in sales, said he could detect the pungent smell of burnt plastic inside, and saw some workers doing repairs.
“The building was very dirty. There was a lot of ashes and dust, and a number of insects which might have flown in during the fire,” he said. “I saw many dead mice.”
Another resident, surnamed Wong, 44, who works in the air-conditioning industry, said he planned to install a metal chain and lock at his door, which was broken.
“I am scared that someone will steal my belongings,” he said, adding police were unable to install a new lock for him as it did not fit his door.
Salbiyah, a 39-year-old asylum seeker from Indonesia, said she also returned to her subdivided flat on the first floor to get her wallets and immigration document, and saw that the walls and clothes had turned black and plastic items had melted.
She said she hoped to go back again to search for her cat who ran away during the fire.
“It it wasn’t thanks to my cat which woke me up during the fire, I might be dead now,” she said. “I am very worried and so scared.”
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Cheung
