by Ir Edmond, P.H. TSE and Jan, C.W. TO
Fire Services Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
In recent years, electronic media has become part of people’s everyday life and emerged as a popular means for providing new sources of information and rapid communications. Overseas fire brigades have made use of these useful platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, to provide the community with the latest fire prevention information. (London Fire Brigade, 2014) (Comstock, 2013) Renowned Engineering Professional Organisations also have make use of Blog to provide up-to-date news and information on the fire engineering profession (NFPA, 2014) (SFPE, 2014). The rapid development of information technology has been impacting the community at large and changed the methodology of information dissemination in this information age.
With the rapid growth of mobile technology, the ownership of smartphones has been booming in Hong Kong. In 2012, 48% mobile phone users were using smartphone while the global average was only 23%. The average local mobile data usage was recorded at over 600 Mbytes per mobile user as at September 2012. (InvestHK, 2014)
According to a survey conduct by Google in 2013, smartphone penetration in Hong Kong has risen from 35% in 2011, to 48% in 2012 and to 63% of the population in 2013. 82% of smartphone users in Hong Kong would use the mobile to access the internet which is the highest mobile internet usage rate in Asia Pacific Region. On average each user has installed 39 applications on the phone. About 82% of users would use the smartphone to browse for information. A total of 70% of these users would browse for information at least once a week; whilst 39% of them would use the phone to look for information daily. (Google, 2014)
| Korea | Hong Kong | Japan | China | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smartphone Penetration | 73% | 63% | 25% | 49% |
| Access to Internet via Smartphone | 82% | 82% | 80% | 69% |
| No. of Apps Installed | 40 | 39 | 36 | 25 |
Up to June 2014, over 74% mobile subscribers has subscribed services with mobile broadband connection which leads to immense demand of mobile application and creates desirable opportunities for utilising such useful platform for disseminating fire safety advice and promoting the public awareness on fire safety.
In view of the growing use of smartphone, the Hong Kong Fire Services Department (HKFSD) have launched a Mobile Application (App) to provide the public with access to the latest FSD information through their smartphones or tablets anytime and anywhere.
Hong Kong Fire Services Department Mobile Application
Hong Kong Fire Services Department Mobile Application, developed by the HKFSD, aims to actively promote fire safety information and ambulance service of HKFSD.
The FSD App can now be obtained from the App Store and Google Play with smartphones or tablets by searching for “Hong Kong Fire Services Department”.
The FSD App features a series of functions including:
- About us
- What’s New and Event
- Vacancy
- Location
- AR Interactive Centre
- Fire Services
- Camera
- Games Download
“About us” provides information the HKFSD, including:-
- Organisation
- Duties
- Vision
- Mission
- Values
“What’s New and Event” covers information updates, publications and events available on the HKFSD Homepage
“Vacancy” includes job vacancies of the department, entry requirements, duties and responsibilities, terms of appointment, application procedures and closing dates for applications.
“Locations” provides the address of Fire Stations and Ambulance Deports in Hong Kong.
The “AR Interactive Centre” employs Augmented Reality (AR) technology. When users scan the relevant pictures from “AR Poster” of
“AR Interactive Centre” available on the FSD.
Homepage with their smartphone or tablet camera, similar or related animations will appear on their smartphone or tablet screen. These animations form simple and interesting interactive games which allow the user to learn more about fire safety and ambulance aid. As the AR Interactive Centre makes use of animation and interactive games, there will be no language barrier, meaning that all members of the public from all walks of life can use and understand the contents easily.
To spread knowledge about fire safety and ambulance aid across the community and across different age groups, the FSD has created three energetic and cute cartoon characters in the App, namely “Lok Lok”[落落(record)], “On On”[安安(safety)]and “Hong Hong”[康康(healthy)]. Each character represents one of the three main areas of work of the FSD, i.e. the receiving of calls, and despatching of fire engines and ambulances; the rescue and fire fighting and the ambulance aid to the sick and the injured. To make fire safety and ambulance services education more fun, a series of promotion items printed with the three mascots has been produced and would be distributed to the public during different kinds of related publicity events.
Having reviewed the tragic fire incidents in Hong Kong, the injuries and fatalities in fire incidents are mostly attributed to poor building management and unpredictable evacuation behaviour. To address these problems and arouse the public’s awareness on fire safety, two mobile game, namely “Live Safe, be Watchful” and “Stay Calm and Collected”, are available at the “Games Download” area.
The objective of the first game is to assist the public in keeping their building safe from fire risk. Players take on the role of the building management personnel and are responsible for tasks such as eliminating fire hazards in the building and assisting ambulancemen in carrying out their duties. To add fun to the game, the number of floors of the building will increase as the player scores more points, making the building more complicated for management and the missions more challenging.
The game “Stay Calm and Collected” comprises a series of quick decision-making mini-games, each of which contains a message relating to fire prevention or ambulance aid. Players learn more about fire safety and ambulance aid as the game proceeds. To encourage members of the public to learn different types of fire and ambulance knowledge, the first 3,000 players completing the 10th level, the first 3,000 players completing the 30th level and first 3,000 players completing the 60th level of these mini-games will be awarded a souvenir by the FSD.
Other than the AR Interactive Centre” and “Games Download”, important information and fire safety advice would pop-up when starting the application so as to arouse public’s concern.
In order to promote the Mobile Apps, with the help of the Hong Kong Education Bureau, an activity is being launched in the Life-wide Learning Databank of the Bureau. The activity is open for application from all primary and secondary schools and can take any forms ranging from giving lectures and demonstrations of the Apps to teachers/students in classrooms or in school assemblies. In addition to the demonstration, member of FSD will also teach the teachers/students on fire safety knowledge. The activity can be viewed in the FSD website (http://www.hkfsd.gov.hk) and EDB’s databank website (http://lwldb.edb.hkedcity.net).
Reference
Comstock, D. C. (2013, June). Using Social Media to Advance the Fire Department Mission. Firerescue Magazine.
Google. (2014). Download Full Data Sets and Country Reports. Google.
InvestHK. (2014, 9 29). Multimedia Industry 2012. Retrieved from InvestHK Offical Site: http://www.investhk.gov.hk/wp-content/ uploads/2013/08/2013.08-multimedia-en.pdf
London Fire Brigade. (2014, 9 29). London Fire Brigade – Contact us. Retrieved from London Fire Brigade Official Site: http://www. london-fire.gov.uk/ContactUs.asp
NFPA. (2014, 9 29). National Fire Protection Association – Social Media. Retrieved
from National Fire Protection Association Offcial Site: http://www.nfpa.org/ newsandpublications/social-mediaSFPE. (2014, 9 29). How SFPE is Using Social Media to Promote the Profession of Fire Protection Engineering. Retrieved from SFPE Offcial Site: http://blog.sfpe.org/2013/09/how- sfpe-is-using-social-media-to-promote-the- profession-of-fire-protection-engineering/