The Fire Services Department responded to 94.9% of building fire calls in 2022 within the graded response time, about 2.4 percentage points higher than the department’s performance pledge.

Issuing the department's year-end review today, it said a total of 34,775 fire calls were received in 2022, a rise of 2.6% compared with the previous year.

There were five No. 3 alarm fires, down one from the six recorded in 2021. Among them was a fire at a construction site in Hoi Kok Street, Tsuen Wan.

Ambulance calls dropped 3.3% to 740,129 in 2022. Last year, 88% of the emergency calls were responded to within the target response time of 12 minutes, which was 4.5 percentage points lower than the department's performance pledge of 92.5%.

The fifth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic led to a surge in the demand for ambulance services. A record of more than 2,700 ambulance calls were received by the department in one single day, with over half of them COVID-19-related and the time taken to handle them 1.5 to two times longer than usual.

Eight hundred and sixty-six ambulance personnel were absent from work due to COVID-19 infection or were under quarantine, accounting for about a quarter of the total ambulance manpower.

Fully implementing the Chinese-style foot drill in 2022, the department formed a guard of honour that comprised over 100 uniformed members across grades to promote the foot drill through different platforms.

Regarding plans for the year ahead, an estimated 771 fire and ambulance personnel will be recruited this year, including 141 officers and 630 rank-and-file staff.

The Fire Services Department said it will continue to work towards the Government's objective of developing Hong Kong into a smart city.

The department is conducting a study with a local university on the use of an AI algorithm comprising big data and geographical information to predict the fire safety risks of buildings in Hong Kong so that the fire safety inspection can be optimised.

It will also devise a simulator to estimate the demand for emergency ambulance services to optimise the deployment and dispatch of ambulances.