Lessons must be learned from tragedy
Firefighting is an inherently dangerous occupation. Neglect of fire safety compounds the hazard to life and limb. So it was when two men lost their lives fighting a blaze that burned for more than four days through mini-storage units in a Ngau Tau Kok industrial building. It was in a sense a tragedy waiting to happen, one that is likely to recur without rigorous compliance with and enforcement of safety rules.
The small size and high cost of Hong Kong flats means many residents do not have room for all their possessions, resulting in a demand for off-site space and a proliferation of mini-storage facilities in which fire safety is, sadly, often observed in the breach.
The fourth-alarm fire, on a scale of one to five, may have been caused by a faulty air conditioner and accelerated by flammable items inside some of the 200 storage spaces.
In ruling that the two senior firefighters, aged 30 and 37, died by misadventure on the first and third days of the fire in 2016, Coroner Philip Wong Wai-kuen urged officials to issue licences for such premises to ensure compliance with safety regulations. He also found that lack of fire safety awareness among operators of storage cubicles at SC Storage and poor communication within the fire services contributed to the tragedy at Amoycan Industrial Centre. SC Storage and Amoycan failed to ensure staff had a basic knowledge of fire safety. He also criticised the fire services for an ineffective communications protocol, with operational decisions improvised by officers on the spot often leading to errors.
Both firefighters were overcome when they apparently got lost in poor visibility in the corridors after being tasked with breaking doors and clearing obstacles so teammates could attack the blaze.
Densely built Hong Kong does not depend just on firefighters for fire protection. Property owners and occupiers have an abiding duty of care for dealing with known hazards. In this regard the coroner made a worrying wider observation, questioning the effectiveness of hazard abatement notices to premises that violate fire safety rules, given that about a third of them have yet to be complied with. Unless lessons are learned, that is a recipe for further tragedy. No cost of adequate inspection and enforcement is too high if it saves a life.