THE Government has ruled out checking industrial buildings for live-in occupants because of a lack of manpower.
Assistant Director of the Buildings and Lands Department, Kenneth Lai Kwok-wah, told a Sham Shui Po District Board special meeting that the department was running short of staff and could not check all the industrial buildings in the area.
The meeting was called after a 75-year-old woman fell six floors to her death trying to escape a fire in an industrial building in Lai Chi Kok last week.
Mr Lai could not rule out the possibility that staff quarters existed in industrial buildings similar to the one where the fire occurred.
But he assured district board members that few people lived in industrial buildings.
Board members were unhappy with Mr Lai's answer and said he was evading his responsibility.