An accident just waiting to happen

The fire that killed nine people yesterday in Fa Yuen Street, Mong Kok, may have been caused by arsonists, but deeply rooted problems in the area's property management and administration put residents at high risk, say community leaders. Stalls selling clothes, sneakers and souvenirs may give the street its character but their illegal extension on to fire escape routes, the poor management of buildings near the stalls and the possible blockage of staircases turned this popular tourist attraction into an accident waiting to happen, they say. 'If they had hired a guard to raise the alarm last night, the number of deaths in this fire could have been reduced,' Yau Tsim Mong District Council vice-chairman Edward Leung Wai-kuen said as he pointed to the problems surrounding the area. He said many buildings along Fa Yuen Street have no fire doors, security guards or owners' corporations. Hawkers usually store goods on the lower floors of buildings. 'With the closely packed stalls selling inflammable goods like clothing, toys and curtains, it is not surprising to see the fire spread quickly,' he said. Vendors have persistently blocked fire escape routes, despite an increase in prosecutions, especially for people living in buildings with only a single staircase, according to district councillors. 'The government did prosecute hawkers after a similar fire last year. But they don't take follow-up action. Hawkers often reoccupy the adjacent areas after checks by department staff. In some extreme cases, half of the street is stuffed with goods,' Leung said, adding that limiting the size of stalls to 12 sq ft was not a practical solution. 'The space is just insufficient for a reasonable business. They will only continue to expand their stalls illegally,' he said. Building plans show that the six buildings affected by the tragedy yesterday, between 188 and 198 Fa Yuen Street, were built in the 1960s. Most have cocklofts for storage purposes. Flats on upper floors are over 600 sq ft with some divided into smaller cubicles for rental. Some have two staircases and investigators will be trying to find out why residents could not escape safely. A survey in February by the Mong Kok District Residence Association of 269 buildings in the area found that 70 per cent of old buildings, including nearby Prince Edward, lacked guards and almost one in five had neither metal gates nor guards. The Home Affairs Department was urged to help set up incorporated owners and provide subsidies to help them install basic security measures. But still, many residents have no guards to protect them and at least two buildings at the fire scene did not have owners' corporations. A reason behind such poor management is that most residents are tenants and the owners are investors waiting for redevelopment opportunities and reaping profits by subdividing flats into cubicles. Land registry records show that about 20 per cent of the flats in buildings affected by the fire on Fa Yuen Street are owned by companies and investors. Four of the six buildings had orders slapped on them by the Buildings Department and they were declared dangerous last year, according to Land Registry documents. Owners of the buildings at 188 and 190 Fa Yuen Street were asked to remove loose cracked concrete from buildings, and owners of 196 and 198 Fa Yuen Street were told to repair loose and defective window frames. Chan Fuk-cheung, the president of the Institution of Engineers, said the speed at which the fire spread could have been caused by staircases being blocked with goods and the lack of fire doors, intensified by inflammable goods stored at stalls. 'If the smoke coming from the ground floor could not be released, it would quickly infiltrate into windows and doors of flats suffocating residents. We call it the mushroom effect,' Chan said. 'It's not a matter of how many staircases you have. It won't help if they are blocked.' After a similar arson fire swept 80 stalls in the same area last year, the district council passed a motion the next day urging the Home Affairs Department to consider reducing the number of stalls. District councillor Chan Wai-keung, who raised the motion, slammed government departments for being inactive. The council will hold a special meeting tomorrow to discuss follow-up action on safety. Secretary for Food and Health Dr York Chow Yat-ngok said yesterday that the stalls should not be removed as they were a tourist attraction. Figures from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department show there were 688 prosecutions for the obstruction of public areas in the past year. More than 200 warning letters were issued to hawkers last month. Brenda Cheng So-ngor, chairwoman of the Federation of Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories Hawker Association, said about half of the 226 stalls already complied with regulations saying the space between stalls should be 1.5 metres.