The Fire Services Department today announced the membership of the inter-departmental task force that will investigate the cause of the fatal Ngau Tau Kok fire.
Chaired by Assistant Director of Fire Services Yau Wai-keung, the team will investigate whether criminal elements were involved in the fire, the circumstances leading to the death and injuries of firefighters, the modes and operations of industrial buildings, and ways to enhance the department's operational procedures.
The other members are Chief Structural Engineer Wai Wing-kay and Chief Building Surveyor Pang Yuk-lung from the Buildings Department; Chief Chemist Cheung Kwok-keung from the Government Laboratory; Chief Inspector Chung Chi-ming from the Police Kowloon East Regional Crime Unit; Chief Electrical & Mechanical Engineer Chan Ka-chung from the Electrical & Mechanical Services Department; and, Associate Head of the City University Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering Prof SM Lo.
Prof Lo's main research interests are decision support systems, fire safety engineering and spatial planning for pedestrian flow and evacuation.
He has been the principal investigator for numerous research projects and has made achievements in the study of fire risk analysis, human behaviour in fires, evacuation modelling, pedestrian flow modelling, large-scale evacuation modelling and disaster prevention.
Representatives of five staff associations of the Fire Services Department will provide advice and proposals on operational procedures, and use of equipment and tools to the task force.
