在大埔大火中奋战了长达 12 个艰难小时后，前线消防员阿辉*（化名）绝想不到，仅仅一年多后，他的部门会置身于公众严厉审视的聚光灯下。
After spending 12 gruelling hours battling the Tai Po inferno, frontline firefighter Ah Fai* could not have imagined that, barely a year later, his department would find itself under the harsh glare of public scrutiny.
那晚的创伤至今仍历历在目。他回忆，燃烧的竹棚碎片从空中如雨般落下，堵塞了宏福苑其中一个主要入口。“我们的同事根本没有机会进去，”他说。
The trauma of that night is still raw. He remembers burning debris from the bamboo scaffolding raining down from above, blocking one of the main entrances of Wang Fuk Court. “Our colleagues simply had no chance of getting in,” he said.
阿辉说，最终冲入大楼的消防员面对的是难以想象的惨状，他讲述了另一名负责搜寻生还者的队员的经历。
Those who eventually breached the towers were met with scenes of unimaginable horror, Ah Fai said, recounting the experience of another crew member who searched for survivors.
“他在走廊里来回走了两趟，竟没发现有人，直到搭档发现了原来是一具人类头骨。” 消防员们还在为去年 11 月宏福苑大火悲痛之际，上周一份关于这场造成 168 人死亡悲剧的独立调查报告公布，让他们有更多创伤需要消化。
“He walked down the corridor twice without realising anyone was there, until his partner spotted what turned out to be a human skull.”Firefighters, already struggling with grief over the blaze at Wang Fuk Court last November, had more to process when an independent inquiry report into the tragedy that killed 168 people was made public last week.
报告赞扬前线人员表现出“极大的英勇”，同时也点名批评消防处存在导致大火发生的监管失职。报告指出问题早已为人所知，但一些消防员感到，报告在前线人员与管理层之间制造了隔阂。
The report praised frontline officers for their “great heroism”, while also singling out the Fire Services Department (FSD) for oversight failures that contributed to the blaze. While saying problems had long been known, some firefighters felt the report had driven a wedge between frontline personnel and management.
当被问及是否良心有愧时，阿辉泣不成声地说：“我确实觉得有点[愧疚]…… 这么多居民丧生，我觉得我们没有资格对报告中的那些批评提出异议。” 在部门工作了二十多年的高级警官彼得*（化名）也有同感。“我自己也感到一种悔恨。我只能说，最终责任在于我们，”他说。
Asked whether he had a guilty conscience, Ah Fai said, sobbing: “I do feel a bit [guilty] … With so many residents dying, I do not think we have any right to speak up against all those criticisms [from the report].”A senior officer, Peter*, who has been with the department for more than two decades, shares that feeling. “I also feel a sense of remorse myself. All I can say is that the ultimate responsibility lies with us,” he said.
“从结果来看，很难说我们做得好，”彼得说，他并未参与大埔的行动。“想想看，在任何社会或任何先进城市，这样的死亡人数都无法辩护。”他说，整个社会对该部门一直相当宽容，因为人们通常不会责怪一线消防员。
“Judging by the outcome, it is really hard to say we did a good job,” said Peter, who did not take part in the Tai Po operation. “If you think about it, in any society or any advanced city, a death toll like this is simply indefensible.”He said society as a whole had been quite forgiving towards the department because people did not normally blame frontline firefighters.
“单就伤亡人数而言，我们绝无理由说表现良好，”他说。“当然，一名同事牺牲了生命，一线队员们也拼尽了全力。这一点我绝不否认。”报告称，遇难消防员何伟豪，37岁，在应对此次事件时表现出非凡的勇气和深厚的责任感。
“Looking strictly at the number of casualties, there is no way we can claim we performed well,” he said. “Of course, a colleague sacrificed his life, and the frontline crews fought incredibly hard. I would never deny that.”The late firefighter Ho Wai-ho, 37, showed exceptional bravery and a deep sense of duty while responding to the incident, the report said.
他停下来协助一名乘坐轮椅的老妇人逃离宏泰大厦，而他的队友们继续前进。在混乱中，他独自进入宏泰大厦。他到达25楼后，情况迅速恶化，但当时认为他完全有能力逃脱。
He stopped to assist an elderly woman in a wheelchair fleeing Wang Tai House, while his teammates continued on. Amid the confusion, he entered Wang Tai House alone. After he reached the 25th floor, conditions deteriorated rapidly, but he was deemed fully capable of escaping.
“然而，据信他留在宏泰大厦，试图协助其他居民疏散。”他后来被发现倒卧在大楼外失去知觉，据信是从高处坠落。
“However, it is believed that he stayed on in Wang Tai House in an attempt to assist the evacuation of other residents.”He was later found lying unconscious outside the building, believed to have fallen from a height.
“尽管条件艰难且危及生命，他仍将他人的救援置于自身安危之上，体现了最高标准的无私与奉献，”报告称。
“Despite the challenging and life-threatening conditions, he prioritised the rescue of others over his own life, exemplifying the highest standards of selflessness and dedication,” the report said.
行动中还有另外13名消防员受伤。报告也赞扬了所有消防员，称：“他们值得香港人民最大的尊重和感激。”据彼得说，报告不可避免地打击了前线士气，消防员感到委屈。但高层认为，独立委员会对该部门的评论，无论是措辞还是力度，都“比预期的更为宽容”。
Thirteen other firefighters were injured during the operation. The report also praised all firefighters, saying: “They deserve the greatest respect and gratitude from the people of Hong Kong.”According to Peter, the report has inevitably hurt frontline morale, with firefighters feeling aggrieved. But the top brass believed the independent panel’s comments about the department were “more lenient than expected” in both wording and intensity.
报告批评该部门“缺乏危机意识”，并依赖“被动、纸面驱动”的审核制度。
The report criticised the department for a “lack of sense of crisis” and for relying on a “passive, paper-driven” audit regime.
该部门曾收到通知，称屋苑的消防栓和喉辘系统因维修而停用，但其人员只进行了“草率的初步视察”，并依赖口头报告，而非亲自进行检查。
It had received notices that the estate’s fire hydrant and hosepipe reel systems had been deactivated for maintenance, but its officers paid only “cursory initial visits” and relied on verbal reports rather than conducting inspections themselves.
停用通知制度遭到严重滥用，宏福苑每座大厦的火警和消防栓长时间被关闭，导致许多居民起初并不知道发生了火灾。该部门没有针对承包商长时间停用此类设备采取执法行动。
The shutdown notice system was gravely abused, with fire alarms and hydrants in each building at Wang Fuk Court shut down for extensive periods, leaving many residents initially unaware that the fire had broken out. The department took no enforcement action against contractors for prolonged shutdowns of such equipment.
报告称：“监管制度执法宽松，必然导致相应承包商表现松懈、差劣，甚至加以利用。”
“Lax enforcement of the regulatory regime would inevitably lead to lax and poor performance of, or even exploitation by, the corresponding contractors,” the report said.
彼得承认，该部门防火组的监督过去一直宽松，并忽视了一个“众所周知”的问题：承包商工作质量参差不齐。他说，现行制度过于信任承包商，缺乏任何制衡机制。
Peter conceded that supervision by the department’s fire prevention team had been loose in the past and that it had neglected a “well-known” problem: the mixed quality of contractors’ work. The current system, he said, put too much trust in contractors and lacked any check-and-balance mechanism.
他说：“工作量一直极为繁重。显然，我们倾向于相信承包商，而没有详细核实（他们提交的材料）的可信度。”
“There has been an overwhelming workload. Obviously we tend to believe the contractors, without verifying the credibility [of what they submitted] in detail,” he said.
消防处处长杨恩健向小组作证称，其部门在规管与紧急楼梯间内以易燃聚氨酯泡沫和可移动木板替代防火窗有关的火灾隐患方面负有一定职责。
Director of Fire Services Andy Yeung Yan-kin testified to the panel that his department had a role in regulating fire hazards related to combustible polyfoam and movable wooden boards installed in emergency staircases in place of fireproof windows.
这与该部门负责消防安全的副处长杨甘洪（音译）的证词相矛盾，后者称此类事项应由建筑主管部门处理。
This contradicted testimony given by Michael Yung Kam-hung, the department’s assistant director for fire safety, who said such matters should be handled by building authorities.
彼得回忆说，同事们对杨的“新解释”职责感到“震惊”，因为前线人员一直认为既定机制将此类任务交由建筑主管部门负责。
Peter recalled that colleagues had been “shocked” by Yeung’s “new interpretation” of duties, as the frontline had been under the impression that the established mechanism left such tasks to building authorities.
“感觉责任正在被推给一线员工。他们可能会想，‘你们是不是在说这是我们的错？是说我们没有把职责履行好吗？’”他说。
“It feels like the blame is being shifted onto the frontline staff. They might end up thinking, ‘Are you saying it is our fault? That we failed to carry out our duties properly?’” he said.
委员会批评了这种推卸责任的做法，称这造成了真空，使王福苑的消防安全问题处于灰色地带。
The committee criticised the shifting of responsibility, which created a vacuum and left fire safety issues at Wang Fuk Court in a grey area.
据阿辉介绍，消防预防小组长期以来松散的工作文化，导致承包商对该部门的监管毫不在意。
According to Ah Fai, the long-standing laid-back working culture of the fire prevention team had left contractors with little regard for the department’s supervision.
他指出，由于该部门希望加强消防预防和建筑检查工作，许多一线消防警务人员被调去支援，进一步加剧了本就有限的人手紧张问题。他说，资源被用于开设新的高级职位，却没有补充一线人员。
He noted that because the department wanted to improve its fire prevention and building inspection efforts, many frontline firefighting officers had been reassigned to help, further straining already limited manpower. Resources had been used to open new senior posts without replenishing frontline staffing, he said.
他举例说，原本需要五名警员执行的任务，现在只有两人在承担，这不可避免地增加了工作量，打击了士气。他说，他只希望该部门能做出多年前就应该做出的改进。
He cited an example in which operations meant for a five-officer team were being handled by just two, inevitably adding to the workload and hurting morale. He said he only hoped the department would make the improvements that should have been made years ago.
“这么多生命逝去，我觉得该部门只是在亡羊补牢，做20年前就该做的事情，”他说。
“With so many lives lost, I feel like the department is just shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, doing things they should have done 20 years ago,” he said.
回应《南华早报》提问时，一名消防处发言人表示，该部门高度重视独立委员会的报告，并正在跟进其建议。
Responding to questions from the South China Morning Post, An FSD spokesman said the department took the independent committee report seriously and was following up on its recommendations.
该部门“非常重视维护员工士气和团队精神，士气一如既往地高昂”，他说。
The department “attached great importance to maintaining staff’s morale and their esprit de corps, which remained as strong as ever,” he said.
他补充说，自报告发布以来，管理层一直与各级员工保持密切联系，包括与员工协会会面、走访消防局和办公室，以解释跟进工作并听取他们的意见。
He added that since the report was published, the management had kept in close contact with staff at all levels, including through meetings with staff associations and visits to fire stations and offices, to explain the follow-up work and listen to their views.
发言人强调，该部门致力于保护公众生命财产免受火灾及其他灾害侵害。该部门将继续实施改革措施，加强消防安全治理，并“以具体行动回应社会期望”。
The spokesman stressed that the department was fully committed to protecting the lives and property of the public from fire and other calamities. It would continue to implement reform measures, strengthen fire safety governance, and “respond to society’s expectations through concrete actions”.
尽管官员们道歉，住房部长也已辞职，但阿辉认为为时已晚，为时已晚，他对政府能够摆脱根深蒂固的官僚主义不抱多大希望。
Despite officials’ apologies and the housing minister stepping down, Ah Fai said it was too little, too late, and he held out little hope that the government could shed its entrenched bureaucracy.
作为一名消防员，他认为官僚主义与长期以来对投标串通的容忍，是这场火灾的根源。
As a firefighter, he believed that bureaucracy, together with a long-standing tolerance for bid-rigging, was a root cause of the blaze.
“这场灾难实则由整个政府造成。没有哪个部门能承担全部责任，”他说。
“This disaster was really caused by the whole government. Not a single department can bear the full responsibility,” he said.