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Following is a transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, at a media session after visiting fire victims at Kwong Wah Hospital today (November 30):
Reporter: Mr Tsang, can you talk about what's the scope of the further review as you said? The measures that were put in place in the light of last year's fire, was that not enough? And so what's the scope of the further review going to be? Is it going to be limited to just Fa Yuen Street or for other jurisdictions like Fa Yuen Street where residences lie on top of market stalls?
Chief Executive: Well, first of all, this is certainly not the first time a fire took place in Fa Yuen Street. A similar fire broke out last year, and there was quite thorough discussion and debate on this matter both at District Council and also in Legislative Council. There are a whole series of measures which were agreed should be taken, including separation of the stalls, reduction of their extension, making sure they are separated from the buildings. All these have been taken largely. But surely these measures are just not enough. There must be some other causes. The policemen and fire services experts are now analysing what happened, they have videotape of the start of the fire, and we have to find out exactly what happened. And I just talked to the Chairman of the District Council. He agreed to raise it for discussion at the District Council and to complement our own investigation in this matter.
I'm sure that we need to do more. What exactly it would be depends on the result of the outcome of the investigation and also the findings and the recommendations of the District Council on this matter. I hope what would come out of it would not only benefit in the handling of the situation in Fa Yuen Street or any other streets where we have hawker stalls and are adjacent to tenement buildings.
This is a serious tragedy. Nine people have already lost their lives, and 20-odd are in hospital. We are sparing no resources. Every resource is put into place - manpower, money - to make sure victims are looked after, and at the same time we deal with their needs, housing, immediate financial needs, et cetera.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Issued at HKT 14:49
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