The Fire Services Bureau (CB) announced yesterday that the number of fire alerts in the first quarter of this year dropped by 15.35 percent to 215 from the same period of last year.
The bureau held its quarterly press conference yesterday at its headquarters next to Sai Van Lake, near Macau Tower, where Wong Si Tim, acting chief of the bureau’s Education Campaigns and Public Relations Division, announced the bureau’s statistics on fire alerts, ambulance call-outs, and other rescue incidents for the first three months of this year.
According to Wong, the bureau attended to 13,207 incidents in total in the first quarter of this year, a decrease of 6.32 percent from the 14,098 recorded in the same period of last year. Among the 13,207 incidents, 11,409 involved ambulance call-outs, down 3.1 percent year on year.
The 13,207 incidents recorded in the first quarter of this year included 215 fire alerts, a decrease of 15.35 percent from the 254 recorded in the same period of last year.
According to Wong, 155 cases of the 215 fire alerts recorded in the first three months of this year were the ones where firefighters did not need to extinguish the fire with a fire hose after arriving at the scene, accounting 72.09 percent of the total.
Wong said that forgetting to turn off the stove, leaving behind still unextinguished items, burning of joss sticks or papers, short circuit of electrical wires, and malfunction of machinery or equipment continued to be the most common causes of fire in the first quarter of this year, with a total of 137 cases, accounting for 63.72 percent of the total number of fire alerts.
Wong also said that the year-on-year decline in the number of ambulance call-outs in the first quarter of this year was mainly due to a decrease in the number of cases involving minor discomforts such as fever and shortness of breath.
Overall, Wong said, dizziness, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, vomiting and fever, as well as various types of injuries and wounds were the major causes of using an ambulance in the first quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, Wong also said that in the first quarter of this year, firefighters conducted 1,601 fire safety inspections in buildings in which 26 were fined for violating the Law on Fire Safety of Buildings and Premises.
Since the law took effect in August 2022, Wong said, the bureau has fined 109 offenders for breaching the law, mainly involving the parking of motorcycles and the placing of miscellaneous items in passages used for evacuation.
Flanked by other senior officers, Wong Si Tim (centre), acting chief of the Fire Services Bureau’s (CB) Education Campaigns and Public Relations Division, addresses yesterday’s press conference at the bureau’s headquarters next to Sai Van Lake. – Photos: Tony Wong
This photo taken yesterday shows fire engines and an ambulance parked in the Sai Van Lake fire station, which is also the Fire Services Bureau’s (CB) headquarters.
