Auditor takes aim at fire services over delayed safety hazard prosecutions

Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department has yet to launch prosecutions in 34 cases involving mini-storage premises that failed to comply with safety hazard orders, with some sites first inspected as far back as 2016, the Audit Commission has said.

The commission also revealed on Wednesday that none of the 249 industrial buildings required to improve fire safety measures in their common parts had complied with the orders issued under a law that took effect in 2020.

Fire safety at industrial buildings came under public scrutiny after a blaze at a premises in Ngau Tau Kok took 108 hours to tame and killed two firefighters in June 2016, prompting authorities to inspect mini-storage facilities across the city.

A report from the commission said that 724 targeted mini-storage facilities, which have clusters of lockers or cubicles allowing the public to store their belongings, were still in operation as of last June, with 129 still having outstanding fire hazard abatement notices and fire hazard orders.

Others had either complied with them or had not received any by that period.

Among the 129 premises, operators of 92 of the facilities were convicted. While three cases were in the process of prosecution, the department had yet to begin any prosecution proceedings in the remaining 34 cases.