Proposed fire safety ranking system for old highrise buildings in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

A survey was carried out in a district in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to investigate the fire safety aspects of old highrise non-residential buildings. Key parameters describing building characteristics and fire services provisions were identified. A 10-point ranking system concerning building characteristics and fire services provisions was proposed to quantify the fire safety level. The ranking system was designed with reference to the new requirements for fire safety in old highrise non-residential buildings in the HKSAR and would be a checklist to assess the fire safety provisions in the buildings. It was found that over 65% of the surveyed old highrise buildings did not have sufficient fire safety provisions. A distribution of the surveyed buildings with different fire safety levels was obtained. Immediate action must be taken to improve fire safety for those buildings that scored less than 6 points.