International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, Volume 3, Number 1, p.25-51, 2001 25 REVIEW ON FIRE REGULATIONS FOR NEW HIGH-RISE COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS IN HONG KONG AND A BRIEF COMPARISON WITH THOSE IN OVERSEAS W.Y. Hung and W.K. Chow Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China (Received 7 March 2001; Accepted 10 April 2001) ABSTRACT Fire safety regulations for new high-rise commercial buildings in Hong Kong were briefly reviewed. Key areas on the proposed improvement appeared in the government consultation paper were identified. A comparison with the fire regulations for high-rise buildings in China Mainland, U.K and U.S.A. was made. 1. INTRODUCTION There are many high-rise buildings in Hong Kong (now the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region HKSAR). Special attention should be paid on fire safety, especially for those with multiple occupancies. It is likely that a small fire accident in a high-rise building with multiple tenants might be turned into disasters with severe human deaths and injuries as well as property loss [1]. Note that different fire safety standards are adopted in separate occupancies and it is more difficult to be managed by multiple ownership. High-rise buildings are defined in local regulations as [2]: A building of which the floor of the uppermost storey exceeds 30 m above the point of staircase discharge at ground floor level. In the past few years, several big fires occurred in those old high-rise buildings [3-6], with the biggest one having 39 people killed. Local citizens are now starting to be aware of the fire safety issues. The government has decided to improve the fire safety aspects by setting up tighter regulations for new high-rise commercial buildings. A consultation paper extending Fire Safety (Commercial Premises) Ordinance was then issued in 1997 [7]. This is a big step advanced by the local government where longer term plannings are likely to be made for the region. Before understanding whether the new regulations are appropriate, a critical review on those current fire regulations for new high-rise buildings should be made. Upon smooth reunification of Hong Kong to China in July, 1997, reviewing the fire regulations related to high-rise buildings in the Mainland [8-11] and comparing them with those in Hong Kong is good for strengthening the interflow of technology between the two administrative systems of the country. In addition, international codes and standards were reviewed. Those are The Building Regulations 1991 Approved Document B: Fire Safety [12]; Fire Precautions Act [13]; Greater London Council (GLC) London Building Act [14,15]; The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Guide E: Fire engineering [16] which is for fire safety in UK; and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 101 Life Safety Code [17], which is an American fire safety standard; and the four model building codes in USA [18-24], including Building Officials and Code Administrators International (BOCA) National Building Code (NBC) 1996 [18]; International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO) Uniform Building Code (UBC) 1997 [20]; Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI) Standard Building Codes (SBC) 1997 [23]; and International Code Council (ICC) International Building Code (IBC) 2000 [24]. The first three govern various states in USA, the last one is consolidated from the first three building codes and is used to replace them. Reporting the results of the investigations is the objective of this paper. The definitions for different terms are reviewed and listed in Appendix A. 2. LOCAL FIRE SAFETY REQUIRE- MENTS Fire safety requirements are different for residential and non-residential buildings. People staying in residential buildings are supposed to be familiar with the building environment and the location of the escape routes. High fire load density is not expected, though there is reservation on this statement because some records on residential building fires indicated that the fire load density was likely to be higher than the specified upper