The government intends to amend the legislation to empower the Fire Services Department and the Buildings Department to undertake fire safety improvement projects in old buildings, and to conduct public consultations from next Tuesday (5th).
Fire consultant Leung Kam-teh believes that this amendment will help solve the problems of scattered ownership, loss of contact with owners, lack of flexibility in law enforcement, and long approval times. to bear part of the cost.
Some district councillors hope that the authorities will shorten the procedure to one year, and also clearly explain the threshold for selecting buildings.
Yau Tsim Mong District Councillor Xu Deliang said in Hong Kong and Taiwan's "Millennium Times" that if the building does not have water tanks, flower drying systems, exit lights, smoke doors, etc., the government will issue fire safety instructions.
He said that in recent years, about 1,600 buildings in Yau Tsim Mong District have failed to comply with the requirements of fire safety directives, but many residents of the "three no buildings" are elderly, subdivided tenants or tenants. Among them, more than 20 buildings have been sued by the government. Asked district councillors for help.
He said that it would take two or three years to lift the fire safety directive, and the plans had been approved by the Fire Services Department, the Buildings Department and the Water Supplies Department. .
He suggested that if the owner has not responded within nine months to one year after the government issued a fire safety instruction, the government should intervene and consult the owner for advice instead of "prosecuting and then prosecuting", which will help save money and hope to deal with it. The procedure was shortened to within one year, and the three government departments should not operate independently.
Fire Consultant: Solve problems such as ownership, long approval time, etc.
Fire consultant Liang Jinde said on the same program that the first difficulty facing old building projects is ownership. Some owners are unwilling to pay the fee, or are unwilling to allow engineering personnel to enter the unit for addition and renovation projects.
In addition to the firefighting facilities, he pointed out that the power supply system of the old building also had problems. To increase the backup power supply and upgrade the system to a safety standard, the cost involved was quite large.
He believes that in the face of many old building owners who are old or lost contact due to immigration, there is also a lack of flexibility in law enforcement. Design approval takes three or four years, delaying the project, and government intervention will help improve building fire safety.
When asked if it would be difficult for the government to recover the costs, Leung Kam-teh believes that taxpayers will inevitably have to bear part of the costs, but he believes that the government has set up a subsidy scheme to fund firefighting works, but due to the dispersion of ownership, the works cannot be carried out. , if it is implemented by the government, it is believed that the funds will eventually be allocated from the subsidy scheme, and the remaining fees will be charged to the owners according to their discretion.
As for the government's plan to undertake works for 200 to 400 buildings, he believes that it is not enough to meet the actual needs.
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