Fire Services Delays HK$1.7bn Upgrade By One Year

The Fire Services Department has pushed back a planned HK$1.7 billion upgrade of a system which controls deployment of vehicles by one year, after a tender exercise failed to attract satisfactory bids.

The new system is to support the transmission of real-time photos and videos to provide staff with a better grasp of the situation at incident scenes, in addition to text messages and conversations.

Initially the system was scheduled to kick in by 2022. But deputy director Joseph Leung said they now expect the upgrade to happen only in 2023.

The tendering of the project itself was delayed by six months as the department prepared the exercise. Leung said the extra time spent on the tendering document has also added to the delay.

Officials said three companies submitted bids, but none of them met the requirements.

The FSD also said that ambulances equipped with automatic chest compression devices will be deployed to the Hong Kong Marathon next month, in light of safety concerns following the death of a runner four years ago.

The Director of Fire Services, Daryl Li, said they are in the process of buying more such devices, and he expects that all ambulances will be equipped with them from September.

Meanwhile, the department said its hugely popular mascot, "Anyone", has done a good job in attracting more people to its first-aid classes.

About 200 people joined the classes in November after the mascot's maiden appearance in a blue spandex bodysuit – compared with only 60 to 70 previously.

Some people have ridiculed the character, but Li said he had never considered abandoning it.

"I just want to use a rather playful way of teaching CPR and AEDs (automated external defibrillators), because it is not rocket science. If you treat it so seriously, it may intimidate citizens into thinking CPR is for the professionals or it takes a long time to do it," he said.