The Government pledged to thoroughly study the Coroner's recommendations on the fatal 2011 Fa Yuen Street fire, at the conclusion of the death inquest today.

It said it will enhance fire and building safety through high-level co-ordination, strengthening inspections and enforcement actions, public education, and support for residents living in old buildings.

After the fire, various departments introduced measures to improve the management of fixed-pitch hawker areas, to improve fire prevention.

The Government provided emergency relief to the victims immediately after the fire. The Yau Tsim Mong District Office activated the emergency relief service instantly to render assistance to affected residents, and provided them with immediate financial subsidies through the General Chinese Charities Fund.

The office also arranged for the affected residents to move into temporary accommodation in Shek Lei. Sixty-eight families moved there temporarily, and 52 have been allocated public rental housing units.

The Buildings Department conducted a detailed investigation at 192–194 Fa Yuen Street immediately after the fire to assess the damage to the building and identify necessary follow-up measures. As a result, the department issued 19 removal orders against unauthorised building works to owners.

So far 12 orders have been complied with or have had the irregularities rectified. The department has instigated prosecutions in respect of five orders against owners for failure to comply with the orders.

The department also issued 1,079 removal orders in respect of the irregularities identified after the inspection to require the owners to rectify the irregularities. Meanwhile, a dedicated task force of the Fire Services Department conducted inspections of these buildings and took enforcement actions against fire hazards or other safety-related irregularities.

Hawker areas

The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department has strengthened its work on the management of Hong Kong's 43 hawker areas. This has included requiring stall hawkers to comply with the stall area requirements during and outside business hours, and enforcement actions against stall canopies constructed of combustible materials and the overnight storage of commodities outside the approved stall areas, to reduce fire risks.

To further improve and enhance the fire safety standard and power installation of hawker stalls, the department will launch a five-year assistance scheme, covering about 4,300 on-street hawkers in the 43 fixed-pitched hawker areas. The Government has made available funding of $230 million for the project.

Building safety

To boost fire safety awareness among residents in old buildings, the Home Affairs Department has collaborated with the Fire Services Department and the Buildings Department, District Councils and Direct Fire Safety Committees to organise and roll out a series of public education and publicity programmes.

Targeted inspections and promotions have been conducted in areas with a higher concentration of "three-nil buildings" and subdivided units. The three departments have also set up a notification mechanism for exchanging and sharing information on high-risk old buildings to facilitate better co-ordination in conducting visits and inspections, as well as in planning for education and publicity on fire prevention.

In addition, the Home Affairs Department has implemented the Subsidy for Owners' Corporations of Old Buildings programme, funded by the Community Care Fund, to provide eligible owners of old buildings with a maximum subsidy of $20,000 for three years.

The Government is now conducting the Long Term Housing Strategy Review. With the proposed injection of an additional $15 billion into the care fund in the 2013-14 Budget, the Government is expediting the review of the programme, so that the eligibility criteria can be refined for relaunching the programme to assist more families living in subdivided units.