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safety and other reasons would appear, as demonstrated inthe Sands Street cases {paras. 4.28 - 4.37 in Chapter 4above), to be inadequate and ineffective. This Officehas finally come to the view, which is being shared bythe BD and the FSD f that the introduction of legislativeamendments to the existing legislation to the effect thatproper EVAs must be provided to all development proposalsincluding redevelopment projects would be an effectiveand long-term solution, amongst others (Chapter 7) .6.8 Most EVAs are in fact public trunk roads butsome are not. For those which are public roads, theirmaintenance is not the responsibility of the FSD.Insofar as the maintenance of EVAs in private buildingdevelopments is concerned, the responsibility of properlymaintaining such EVAs falls on the owners of theconcerned buildings themselves. It is their duty toensure that such EVAs are free from obstruction at alltimes to allow a smooth passage of emergency vehicles.Prior to the Yue Wan Estate fire, the FSD indeed did nothave a systematic programme for carrying out inspectionsto any EVAs, and such inspections were only made on arandom basis or upon receipt of complaints.6*9 Following the fire in Yue Wan Estate in July1995, both the FSD and the HD had jointly made greatefforts in improving the fire safety measures in thePHEs. Many improvement and remedial works relating toEVAs had been carried out in public housing estates(including those managed by the HKHS) but no similarefforts were spent or planned in respect of privatebuilding developments. This Office understands that thismight have attributed to the fact that more than half ofthe population in Hong Kong are living in such PHEs andalso that the present resources of the FSD do not permitthe Department to extend such efforts to the privatebuilding developments.Provision and Maintenance of PSIs and Equipment in BothPublic and Private Building Developments6.10 As pointed out in para. 6.5 above, theprovision of modernised FSIs and equipment has becomeincreasingly more important and essential in the modernphilosophy of firefighting within building developments.Unlike EVAs, the enforcement of the provision of FSIs andequipment has since 1964 had the necessary legal backing- 84 -