HK firefighters could be deployed across border to help in extreme-weather rescues

Firefighters and emergency equipment in Hong Kong and other cities in the Greater Bay Area are planning to establish a collaboration agreement that would allow for mutual aid during extreme weather events.

Director of Fire Services, Andy Yeung Yan-kin, said the Fire Services Department aims to finalize the details of this agreement within the year. The department is also seeking recognition from the United Nations as a medium rescue team.

Yeung said the collaboration agreement would involve the deployment of emergency equipment, personnel, and supplies across the border under extreme conditions.

Speaking in a press conference yesterday, Yeung said the department aims to sign a Greater Bay Area emergency response and rescue cooperation framework agreement with Guangdong and Macau within this year.

The three regions had already held a meeting in September last year and came up with a draft of the agreement, he said.

The authorities are making a list of emergency equipment, personnel, and supplies that could be deployed across the border under extreme conditions, and decide under what conditions cross-border rescue should be carried out, Yeung said

"For example, we have a fireboat that can handle biological and nuclear incidents but Macau doesn't. If such an incident happens in Macau, we can consider deploying it to Macau," he said.

"Also, we noticed that Guangdong province is experienced in handling flood cases with advanced tools, such as drones, unmanned surface vessels, and various speedboats. It would be beneficial for Hong Kong if we could take reference from their training experience and technologies," he added.

Meanwhile, the department is also seeking accreditation from the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group under the United Nations for the Hong Kong search and rescue team to be recognized as a medium international search and rescue team.

The department has already filed the application, which will be handled within 24 months. The United Nations will also send representatives to assess local firefighters' training later, Yeung said.

Yeung also said the department handled 36,103 fire calls last year, up 3.8 percent from the 34,775 calls in 2022, and nine calls involved No. 3 alarm or above fires.

But Yeung said the rise in fire calls was caused by an increasing number of false alarms due to extreme weather.

"When the city was hit by typhoon and the 'once-in-500-years' rainstorm, we recorded over 1,000 cases of false fire alarms, which was far more than usual days," he said.

The department also received over 40,000 calls for other incidents last year, up 15.4 percent from 2022.