消防與救護：由炸樓救火到五級火

1. 1851: when buildings were blown up to stop a fire

On the night of 28 December 1851 a fire broke out in the lower market at Sheung Wan, roughly today’s So Kun Street. British troops stopped it by blowing up buildings: with no pressurised water supply and no ladders, cutting a firebreak was the practical method.

The record is explicit: two British soldiers died, two hundred Chinese were missing and four hundred and fifty buildings burned. A casualty list also maps the city’s ethnic order, since the soldiers were recorded by name and the Chinese mostly only as missing.

From 1851 to the present, fire in Hong Kong has been bound up with the shape of its buildings. This piece does not list every blaze; it follows the fires that changed the rules, because a fire only enters the record once it becomes an ordinance, a department or a course of training.

2. 1919: ambulance service begins inside the fire brigade

From 14 March 1919 the fire brigade added ambulance transport, sending one driver and three attendants round the clock. The step is easily overlooked: today fire and ambulance form one department, but the ambulance began as an add-on service of the brigade.

On 1 January 1926 a fire at the Hong Kong Hotel in Central caused property damage of 2.5 million dollars and killed a sailor during the rescue. On 3 February 1940 a fire at Shek Kip Mei village in Sham Shui Po destroyed more than 700 houses and left 5,000 registered victims.

Before the war the brigade was small and ambulance work was an add-on; the loss from one hotel fire marked the limit of the system. The problem was not unwillingness to reform but a shortage of hands.

3. After the war: fire becomes a housing problem

On the night of 22 September 1948 a fire in the Wing On godown in Western District killed or left missing 176 people, injured 69 and caused losses of more than 20 million dollars. A godown fire differs from a domestic one: stacked goods make fighting harder and escape routes are often blocked.

On 21 November 1951 a fire in Tung Tau Tsuen, Kowloon City, destroyed about 3,000 houses and left more than 15,000 people homeless. On Christmas Day 1953 a fire in the Shek Kip Mei squatter area left fifty-three thousand people without homes. In the early hours of 21 February 1955 a fire in Sheung Shui’s Shek Wu Hui burned eight streets, about eighty per cent of the settlement or some 300 houses, killing one person and injuring six.

Squatter fires shared the same conditions: narrow lanes, flammable materials and too little water. After each blaze the response was not only firefighting but rehousing, a thread that reappears in the history of public housing.

4. Professionalisation: headquarters, a school and fire danger signals

On 11 November 1960 a road traffic amendment exempted police cars, fire engines and ambulances from traffic signals, a detail that shows firefighting had become an emergency service with a claim to priority. On 15 May 1961 a fire in three connected buildings on Lai Chi Kok Road in Sham Shui Po killed 29 people and injured 50.

On 14 April 1967 a new Fire Services headquarters opened on Java Road in North Point, and on 20 July 1968 a fire training school opened in Pat Heung, serving both as the training ground for the whole service and as its New Territories headquarters. On 9 October 1972 the service and the Observatory jointly announced fire danger warning signals in yellow and red.

5. 1987 to 1990: headquarters, hours and a union

On 26 February 1987 the service’s first permanent headquarters building opened in Tsim Sha Tsui. On 27 March 1990 the Fire Services Department Staffs General Association began a hunger strike outside fire stations and the Colonial Secretariat, calling for weekly hours to be cut to 48.

The strike lasted 144 hours and drew about 1,500 firefighters voluntarily. On 1 June 1990 the Government set up a working group to review fire service hours and establishment. The action marks a turning point: before it, debate centred on equipment and ordinances; after it, staffing and hours became part of the same question.

Beyond hours lay establishment. The firefighters sought shorter shifts and more hands together: new equipment alone would not make a night shift shorter.

6. Garley and Cornwall Court: rules catching up

On 20 November 1996 a five-alarm fire at Garley Building in Yau Ma Tei burned for about 23 hours, killing 41 people and injuring 81, including a firefighter. On 29 August 1997 the SAR Government published its final report on the fire, with recommendations on fire service arrangements, installations and public education.

On 14 March 1997 the Government brought in an ordinance raising fire safety standards in commercial buildings, and from 1 June 1998 commercial buildings completed on or before 1 March 1987 had to upgrade their fire service installations. Retroactivity was the point: new buildings follow new standards easily, old ones are the real problem.

7. 2008 to 2016: Cornwall Court, an academy and mini-storage

On 10 August 2008 a five-alarm fire at Cornwall Court in Mong Kok killed four people and injured 55. On 29 August the Medal for Bravery (Gold) was awarded posthumously to two firefighters who died on duty.

On 16 March 2016 the Fire and Ambulance Services Academy opened at Pak Shing Kok in Tseung Kwan O. On 21 June 2016 a four-alarm fire in mini-storage units at Amoycan Industrial Centre in Ngau Tau Kok burned for 108 hours before being put out on 25 June. On 28 June the Fire Services Department, Buildings Department, Lands Department and Labour Department began a territory-wide survey and inspection of mini-storage facilities: one storage problem required four departments.