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Following is a question by the Hon Wu Chi-wai and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, in the Legislative Council today (February 19):
Question:
The Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance (Cap. 572) (the Ordinance), which has come into operation since 2007, stipulates that the fire safety of composite and domestic buildings constructed on or before March 1, 1987 must be enhanced to better meet the requirements of today. It is learnt that quite a number of owners' corporations and minority flat owners of buildings have encountered difficulties in making improvements to the fire service facilities of their buildings in order to comply with the Ordinance. Although the Government has repeatedly indicated in its replies to questions raised by Members of this Council that it would, without compromising basic fire safety, adopt a flexible and pragmatic approach in handling individual cases, quite a number of minority flat owners have relayed to me that they are unclear about the criteria adopted by the Fire Services Department and the Buildings Department for enforcing the Ordinance flexibly, making it difficult for them to comply with the Fire Safety Directions (FS Directions) issued by the two departments. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) as the Government indicated in July last year that it would conduct inspections on target buildings throughout Hong Kong in two phases, whether it has completed inspections of the some 9 000 buildings under the first phase; if it has not, of the anticipated completion time; if it has, whether it has launched the second phase of inspections; if so, of the progress and the respective numbers of buildings inspected under the two phases, broken down by District Council district;
(2) among the buildings inspected under the first phase, of the respective numbers of buildings in respect of which: (i) the authorities have not issued any FS Directions, (ii) the authorities have issued FS Directions which have been complied with, (iii) the authorities have issued FS Directions which have been partially complied with, (iv) the authorities have issued FS Directions all of which have not been complied with, and (v) the authorities have issued FS Directions and subsequently exempted the owners concerned from complying with such FS Directions as well as the contents and total number of FS Directions compliance with which has been exempted;
(3) among the buildings in respect of which FS Directions have been issued and fully complied with, of the numbers of those which involved (i) installation of water tanks, (ii) installation of hose reel systems, (iii) structural building works, (iv) non-structural building works, and (v) adoption of alternative proposals (with a breakdown by the type of such alternative proposals);
(4) of the criteria, legislation or guidelines based on which the authorities decide whether or not to accept alternative proposals, e.g. the criteria based on which the authorities will consider accepting the alternative proposal of obtaining water directly from town mains for automatic sprinkler systems of those composite buildings with commercial portions not exceeding four storeys; whether the authorities will promulgate to the minority flat owners their criteria for vetting and approving alternative proposals, so that minority flat owners will know what alternatives they may consider in respect of compliance with FS Directions;
(5) whether it will draw reference from the alternative proposal mentioned in (4) and consider allowing owners of residential buildings to adopt the same alternative proposal, i.e. allowing the fire-fighting systems of residential buildings to obtain water directly from town mains; if it will not, of the reasons for that; and
(6) whether it has compiled statistics on the average works expenses borne by each flat owner of buildings for compliance with FS Directions in the past five years, with a breakdown by the number of households in the building; as quite a number of owners have indicated that it is difficult for them to raise funds for paying the related works expenses, whether the authorities will accept more alternative proposals of different types, so as to relieve burdens of minority flat owners?
Reply:
President,
The Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance (Cap. 572) (the Ordinance) came into operation on July 1, 2007. The Ordinance stipulates that the fire safety of composite and domestic buildings constructed on or before March 1, 1987 should be enhanced to better meet the requirements of today. There are notable differences between the fire safety¡¡requirements at the time of the construction of those old buildings and the modern standards. For instance, the commercial portions of the composite buildings were not required by law at that time to install automatic sprinkler systems. Enhancements are therefore necessary.
The Fire Services Department (FSD) and the Buildings Department (BD) will issue Fire Safety Directions (FS Directions) to owners and/or occupiers with regard to fire service installations and fire safety constructions in those buildings, with a view to enhancing their basic fire protection measures. BD is the enforcement department for fire safety measures on the planning, design and construction of buildings, while the regulation of fire service installations and equipment falls under the purview of FSD.
The Administration's reply to various parts of the question is as follows:
(1) FSD and BD conduct joint inspections on target buildings in Hong Kong by two phases. The first phase covers about 9 000 old composite buildings and the second phase covers about 3 000 old domestic buildings. It is expected that the first phase of inspection will be completed around the end of 2015 whilst the second phase will commence in 2016.
As at the end of January 2014, FSD and BD have inspected a total of 7 090 old composite buildings. The breakdown of the number of target buildings inspected by District Council districts is at Annex 1.
(2) FSD issued 92 336 FS Directions to owners and occupiers of 3 895 target buildings, out of the 7 090 old composite buildings inspected. Of the FS Directions issued, 25 795 FS Directions (about 28 per cent) have been complied with. FS Directions have not yet been issued to the remaining 3 195 target buildings.
Of the 3 895 target buildings issued with FS Directions, 50 of those have fully complied with the FS Directions issued by FSD. For how many of the remaining buildings have partially complied with FS Directions and how many of those have not complied at all, FSD does not have readily available statistics. However, the department advised that the majority of those buildings have complied with some relatively easy requirements such as providing emergency lighting in their commercial portions.
In implementing the Ordinance, FSD will consider the circumstances and constraints of individual buildings and adopt a flexible and pragmatic approach in dealing with the relevant requirements of fire service installations and equipment. Among the 3 895 buildings mentioned above, nine buildings (Note 1) were unable to install fire service water tanks for the operation of hose reels due to structural and spatial constraints. Having thoroughly considered the justifications submitted by owners and/or authorised persons (Note 2) engaged by them, FSD exempted such buildings from the requirement of installing fire service water tank and hose reel, and approved the use of manual fire alarm system and fire extinguisher as alternatives. There were also 1 815 buildings which were given approval by FSD to be exempted from installing fire hydrant and hence the capacity of the fire service water tank required could be significantly reduced. Some buildings were also approved by the department for using improvised automatic sprinkler system or improvised hose reel system as alternatives, or converting fresh or flushing water tank into water tank for the hose reel system, etc.
(3) Among the 50 buildings which have fully complied with FS Directions, 24 were required to install additional fire service water tanks and fire hydrant/hose reel systems, which involved structural building works. The remaining 26 buildings were not required to install additional fire service water tanks and fire hydrant/hose reel systems, but were required to enhance their existing fire hydrant/hose reel systems or install additional manual fire alarm systems and fire extinguishers as alternatives. Those works did not involve structural building works. FSD advised that for 34 out of those 50 buildings, flexibilities or alternatives put forward by their building owners were allowed in some of the requirements in the FS Directions. A breakdown of the relevant measures/alternative proposals is at Annex 2.
(4) FSD is aware that individual buildings might not be able to fully comply with the requirements due to structural or spatial constraints. On these special circumstances, FSD will, without compromising basic fire safety, adopt a flexible and pragmatic approach in handling individual cases. FSD has also formulated internal guidelines to assist officers concerned in enforcing the Ordinance. FSD officers may consider dealing with some of the requirements in a flexible manner or accepting the alternatives put forward by the building owners in the light of the circumstances of individual buildings and/or the information submitted by authorised persons in relation to the execution of the FS Directions, such as the height of the buildings and whether there are spatial constraints and so forth. For example, if there are spatial constraints in the installation of a hose reel system and/or water tank, the department may consider allowing the installation of an improvised hose reel system (Note 3) and conversion of a fresh or flushing water tank into the water tank for the hose reel system, etc in the concerned buildings.
FSD advised that if the commercial portions of target composite buildings are required to install automatic sprinkler systems and the associated water tanks (Note 4) but there are structural or spatial constraints, the department will consider allowing the installation of improvised automatic sprinkler systems (i.e. the water supplies for the systems may come from direct connection from town mains or the shared use of the water tank of the fire hydrant/hose reel systems) in the light of the circumstances of individual cases and the information submitted by authorised persons. However, due to the constraint on water pressure, the proposal of obtaining water directly from town mains for the improvised sprinkler systems is only applicable to a composite building with the commercial portions not exceeding 15 metres (i.e. normally not more than four storeys).
FSD issued a departmental Circular Letter No. 3/2007 "Fire Service Installations and Equipment required under the Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance" to fire service installation contractors and authorised persons in August 2007 (see Annex 3), which stated that FSD would adopt a flexible and pragmatic approach in implementing the Ordinance, and set out some circumstances under which flexible handling of the requirements might be considered. The Circular Letter has been uploaded to FSD's website for reference by the trade and the general public. Furthermore, FSD's case officers are prepared to meet with owners or authorised persons engaged to explain to them the FS Directions and assist them in solving potential problems associated with the engineering works.
(5) According to FSD, the domestic portions of target composite buildings and domestic buildings are not required to install automatic sprinkler system, but are required to install fire hydrant/hose reel systems. To ensure water supply would not be contaminated and to avoid illegal use of water from town mains, water supply to the fire hydrant/hose reel system must not come directly from town mains according to Chapter nine of the Hong Kong Waterworks Standard Requirements of the Water Supplies Department. Therefore, FSD cannot approve fire hydrant/hose reel systems with water supply directly from town mains for domestic portions of composite buildings or domestic buildings. FSD has also indicated that from the operational point of view, as the fire hydrant/hose reel systems are required to cover a larger area of the building and require a higher water pressure to operate, the stability of water supply for the fire hydrant/hose reel systems cannot be fully guaranteed if water for fire hydrant/hose reel systems is fed from town mains directly without being initially stored in a water tank. The systems might not function effectively if water pressure was inadequate.
(6) FSD does not have statistics of the work expenses borne by building owners for compliance with the FS Directions. To assist owners of private buildings to maintain and repair their buildings, BD, the Hong Kong Housing Society and the Urban Renewal Authority run financial assistance schemes for property owners in need, including the Building Safety Loan Scheme, Integrated Building Maintenance Assistance Scheme and Building Maintenance Grant Scheme for Elderly Owners. Fire safety improvement works pertaining to the Ordinance have been incorporated into the list of works eligible for subsidies or loans under these schemes. The application procedures of these schemes have also been streamlined. Owners may apply for multiple schemes by completing a set of application forms under the Integrated Building Maintenance Assistance Scheme. FSD will, from time to time, review its flexible and pragmatic measures and the circumstances under which flexible handling of the requirements can be considered, with a view to assisting those buildings in genuine need to comply with the requirements set out in the FS Directions without compromising basic fire safety.
Note 1: Among these nine buildings, three buildings have fully complied with the FS Directions, whilst the deadlines of FS Directions for the remaining six buildings are yet to expire.
Note 2: Authorised persons refer to the architects, engineers or surveyors registered under the Buildings Ordinance (Cap. 123).
Note 3: An improvised hose reel system includes a hose reel water tank with a capacity of less than 2 000 litres, a hose reel drum installed at a higher position and a hose reel of reduced length.
Note 4: In accordance with the Ordinance, if the total floor area of the commercial portions of a target composite building exceeds 230 square metres, the relevant commercial portions are required to install automatic sprinkler systems. Such is not required in the domestic portions of composite buildings.
Ends/Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Issued at HKT 18:35
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