Madam President, on 11 September this year, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City completely collapsed just over one hour after fires raged in them upon the crash of two aeroplanes into them. It was reported that one of the causes of their collapse was the severe weakening of the load-bearing strength of the towers' steel-based load-bearing structure under extreme heat. Regarding the fire safety of these buildings in Hong Kong designed with a steel-based load-bearing structure, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the current number of such buildings in Hong Kong and the districts in which they are mainly located;
(b) whether it has assessed the risk of such buildings collapsing due to failure to resist the strong heat caused by fire or other accidents; if so, of the details; and
(c) whether it has drawn up any escape and rescue guidelines on the courses of action to be taken in the event of fire and other catastrophic incidents in such buildings; if so, of the details?
Madam President, can the Secretary quantify the situation so that we can see the picture more vividly? For example, with regard to part (b) of the question about the fire resistance standard, to what degrees in temperature can our buildings withstand the extreme heat of burning, or how high the temperature of scorching heat will amount to the effect of 10 aeroplanes crashing into a building, or insofar as the fire resistant structures of our buildings are concerned, how many bomb-filled vehicles will have to crash into the base of a building for it to collapse? Can the Secretary portray a picture for us in this way, so that we will know how safe the structures of our buildings are?