Macau’s Fire Services Bureau (CB) announced yesterday that 11,515 ambulance call-outs were recorded in the first quarter of this year, of which half of the callers said: “I’m unwell” (唔舒服) when requesting the free service.
The bureau hosted a press conference at its headquarters next to Sai Van Lake, near Macau Tower, yesterday morning during which its senior officers announced their statistics on fire alerts, ambulance call-outs, and other rescue incidents for the first three months of the year.
According to a statement released during the press conference, the bureau attended to 13,923 incidents between January and March, an increase of 5.42 percent from the 13,207 recorded in the same period of last year. Among the 13,923 incidents, 11,515 involved ambulance call-outs, up by 106 calls, a slight increase of 0.93 percent year-on-year, the statement said.
Based on the official data, the daily average of ambulance deployments between January and March stood at 127, or around five every hour.
The press conference pointed out that about 50 percent of the ambulance deployments involved the callers’ claim that they were “unwell” (“m syu fuk” in Cantonese transliteration), citing conditions such as dizziness, abdominal pain, fever, and contusions.
The 13,923 incidents recorded in first quarter included 248 fire alerts, an increase of 15.35 percent from the 215 in the same period of 2025. A total of 194 of the 248 fire alerts did not require firefighters to extinguish the blaze with a fire hose after arriving at the scene, accounting for 78.23 percent of the total, according to the statement.
The main causes of fire alarms were unattended cooking stoves, careless disposal of ignition sources, burning of incense, candles and joss paper, mechanical or equipment failure, and short circuits, the statement said, adding that these causes combined accounted for 166 cases, or 66.94 percent of all fire alarm responses. Among the fire-alert responses, incidents requiring hose deployment for firefighting totalled 54, a decrease of 10 percent year-on-year, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the statement also said that the bureau’s special services recorded 1,775 cases, an increase of 55.16 percent year-on-year. According to a spokesman, the duties of the special services include patrolling, removing obstacles, clearing fallen trees and washing the ground.
This year, additional tasks involving construction site inspections and scaffolding checks were carried out, accounting for over 800 of the special services cases, the press conference said, pointing out that the increase was also the local response to last November’s Wang Fuk Court estate inferno in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district, which resulted in 168 deaths and 79 injured people.
This photo taken on July 17, 2024 shows an ambulance and other vehicles parked at the Fire Services Bureau (CB) headquarters in Sai Van. – Photo: MPDG
