Anti-fire safety regulation complete by year’s end

Ma Io Weng

The modified safety regulations aimed at preventing fire will entitle the city’s fire service to additional legal enforcement power, which, according to Ma Io Weng, the commander of the Fire Service, would allow the department to penalize local entities that are found to breach the safety policy. Weng also revealed that the current fire station in Coloane is facing expansion work.
Speaking on the sidelines of an official conference on preventive measures against possible tropical cyclones this year, the ccommander told the media that the amendment bill for this anti-­fire regulation would likely be complete by the end of the year. This comes after years of deliberation between the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau and the fire department since a public consultation was launched in 2009.
By the time the new set of policies comes into effect, the fire service, which currently serves as merely a fire-fighting opinion-provider, will be able to obtain legal mandate to punish offenders. “It will help make the work between the two departments clear and efficient, and also make it convenient to carry out work for us,” said Ma. “Originally we were an opinion-providing department, but now it will make us law enforcers who possess the rights to penalize. This is the major duty-split,” he added.
The existing regulation has confined the fire service’s power to only conducting on-site inspections, as any issues that are discovered have to be passed to other government departments for legal execution.
The department head also told media that the amended regulation would increase the department’s workload, as the authorities would need to beef up their public relations efforts towards the population.
In further work, the authorities plan to establish another fire substation around the checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in the new reclamation area, and will collaborate with related officials from the neighboring two cities on rescue works.
The location that was previously
selected for the establishment of a fire substation and emergency rescue center was for the area of Coloane which was abandoned due to technical problems. Ma told media that a new venue near the Macau East Asian Games Dome will replace the former spot. The project is expected to take almost five years to finish before the substation becomes fully operational. However, the authorities plan to start work soon in expanding the existing Coloane station, in order to meet the public demand for a fire service. “For the expansion of our current Coloane station, one year is enough. To ensure that the entire area of Coloane is fully protected, the current expansion work is intended to help the fire service meet the internationally required ‘six-minute’ span for rescue work,” said the department head, also proclaiming that the authorities so far have sufficient manpower to respond to the needs arising outside the Macau peninsula. Staff reporter

Five typhoons expected within the year

The meteorological authorities anticipate that Macau will see four to six tropical cyclones this year, with at least one of them a possibility to merit the hoisting of signal number eight. The first typhoon might appear as early as the middle of June, while the last one might come in September. Meanwhile, the government has also launched a WeChat account, together with an electronic display device, at the Portas do Cerco (Border Gate) in order to release typhoon-related information to the public.