Hong Kong to scrap fax messaging between police and fire services for emergencies

Hong Kong’s security chief has pledged to replace emergency fax messaging between police and firefighters with a digital system and to increase phone lines at call centres, after an inquiry into a fatal Tai Po fire revealed that residents had waited up to 15 minutes for call referrals.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung’s remarks on Friday at a Legislative Council Finance Committee meeting followed evidence that emerged from an independent committee’s hearing that revealed a bottleneck between the force’s 999 call centre and Fire Services Department (FSD) operators.

The inquiry into the blaze at Wang Fuk Court, which broke out on November 26 last year and claimed 168 lives, heard that while the force’s emergency centre was equipped with 200 telephone lines, the FSD had only 30.

In one case, a domestic helper caring for a 98-year-old resident was kept waiting for 90 seconds for a transfer, before having to repeat her location and details to a second operator.

Another issue raised at the hearing was the practice of police faxing additional information from emergency appeals gathered online to the fire department.

“We do think it is undesirable to fax the information to the fire department,” he told the legislators.

“In the next one to two months’ time, we will establish a mechanism to pass on the information we have obtained digitally to the fire department.”