Infographic：Fire! Fire! Fire!

[2021.04.14] 發表

【明報專訊】Are you familiar with figures related to fire incidents? Let's take a look at the 2020 year-end review issued by the Fire Services Department on 10 March 2021.

◆How many fire calls did the Fire Services Department receive in 2020?

33,632! This number indicates that they received more than 90 fire calls per day on average.

Although there was a decrease of 10.6% as against the number in 2019, this figure is still surprisingly high. We should place more emphasis on fire prevention and fire safety.

． 33,632 fire calls ↓10.6%

． 28,752 building fire calls ↓8.7%

． 4 — No. 3 or above alarm fires(三級或以上火災)

◆What is the graded response time for calls regarding fire?

6 minutes for built-up areas, and 9-23 minutes for areas of dispersed risks and isolated developments(樓宇分散及偏遠地區). Among the fire calls they had received, 94.8% of them were responded to within the graded response time.

◆How many fire safety inspections has the department conducted?

． 370,455.

． 808 prosecutions were made.

◆What did the department do in response to the need for fire safety?

Regarding the No.1 alarm fire in Yau Ma Tei, which caused 7 deaths, the department promised to make sustained efforts to reach out to local ethnic minorities and provide them with fire safety education. The department promised to employ more ethnic minorities as well.

If you were a government official, what would you do to enhance fire safety in Hong Kong?

■Gear up

The Fire Services Department received more fire calls in 2020 than in 2019.

(True/False/Not Given)

(Answer on next text)

■Glossary

emphasis (n) 重視

response (n) 回應

sustained(adj) 持續的

enhance(v) 提升

[Smarties' Power English 第309期]