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  5. Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance (Cap.572)

Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance (Cap.572)

The purpose of the Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance (the Ordinance) is to provide better protection from the risk of fire for occupants and users of, and visitors to, certain kinds of composite buildings and domestic buildings.  The Ordinance commenced operation on 1 July 2007.

Scope of the Ordinance

This Ordinance applies to a composite building or domestic building if —

(a)
the building was constructed, or intended to be used,
  • partly for domestic purposes and partly for non-domestic purposes; or
  • for domestic purposes and more than 3 storeys; and
(b)
the building
  • either with its plans of the building works of which were first submitted to the Building Authority for his approval on or before 1 March 1987; or
  • which was constructed on or before 1 March 1987 where no plans of the building works of the building were submitted on or before that date to the Building Authority for approval.

[This Ordinance does not apply to such a building if it was constructed in accordance with the Buildings Ordinance (Application to the New Territories) Ordinance (Cap.121)]

Fire Safety Requirements

(a)
Provision of fire service installations and equipment
An owner and/or occupier of the composite building or domestic building may be required to comply with all or any of the following fire safety measures —
  • Automatic sprinkler system;
  • Fire hydrant and hose reel system;
  • Manual fire alarm system;
  • Emergency lighting (common areas & non-common areas); and
  • Automatic cut-off device for mechanical ventilating system (common areas & non-common areas)
(b)
Provision of fire safety construction
An owner of the composite building or domestic building may be required to comply with all or any of the following fire safety construction —
  • means of escape;
  • fire resisting constructing; and
  • means of access for firefighting and rescue.

Implementation

The Ordinance has come into operation since 1.7.2007. Implementation is mainly in 2 phases:

  • Phase 1 :
    For target composite buildings within the scope of the Ordinance, inspection is targeted to be completed in the first 9 years.
  • Phase 2 :
    For target domestic buildings within the scope of the Ordinance, inspection commences after that for composite buildings.

Enquiries

For further information about the above-mentioned ordinance, please contact the Fire Services Department at telephone No. 2272 9112 or the Buildings Department at telephone No. 2626 1616 or refer to the introduction below.