Exits at Real Expert Play Fun Zone were locked with bike locks or blocked, despite earlier warnings from Hong Kong authorities

A children’s soft-play venue was found with locked and blocked fire exits during an investigation into one of two malls warned by Fire Services Department (FSD) to improve fire safety.

At Real Expert Play Fun Zone, which charges HK$5,500 for a 10-guest soft-play birthday party, staff struggled to unlock the combination lock chained to the exterior door handles of the main fire exit. Two other fire exits in the venue were completely obscured by heavy curtains and plastic fencing, with flammable plastic matting and extension cords littered on the staircase.

The playroom is part of a chain with other branches in Tuen Mun and Sheung Wan. Venue staff did not see any problem with the arrangement, pointing out that the fire escapes beyond the locked doors were quite clear.

The mall, Chuang’s London Plaza on Nathan Road, was the target of an FSD investigation along with Dundas Square in Mong Kok on Monday. The department said it found “multiple violations” of fire law in the two malls, but instituted only one prosecution. FSD said 32 Fire Hazard Abatement Notices were issued.

At Chuang’s London Plaza on Thursday, building management staff said press reports on the mall’s fire safety following Monday’s FSD raid were unfair. They claimed that, of the two malls, the Dundas Square mall had attracted most of the FSD enforcement action during that raid.

The publicly-accessible fire escapes in the rest of the Chuang’s London Plaza were found in order.

Chuang’s London Plaza management gave a comprehensive tour of one fire escape staircase, from the top floor to the ground-floor exit, which was found in very good order: apart from one restaurant worker caught smoking illegally and one vegetable crate left outside a restaurant, that staircase was clean, open and tidy throughout all 12 floors.

Speaking off the record, management said they took fire safety very seriously and that they would speak to the soft-play business about the locked fire door issue.

Dundas Square was a different story. An investigation found many issues involving faulty fire doors and blocked escapes, even as a postal worker delivered a stack of Fire Hazard Abatement Notices from FSD. A property manager refused to answer questions and shouted “get out!” when asked questions about the poor state of the fire escapes in the mall.

Despite warnings from FSD, Dundas Square management shows little respect for fire laws

FSD’s “soft touch” of education and leafletting over enforcement has attracted criticism, with Yau Tsim Mong District Councillor Wong Shu-ming on Wednesday calling for undercover operations to root out wrongdoing.

But in response, Lai Kin-mo, Senior Divisional Officer (Building Improvement Strategy and Special Operations) with FSD, told the RTHK Millennials show that education was more important.

“Enforcement is a last resort,” he said, seven weeks after the fire tragedy in Tai Po which killed 161 people and where many irregularities in fire safety were thought to have intensified the death toll.

FSD has been on the back foot since the Tai Po tragedy, with many investigations revealing a shocking lack of respect for fire regulations across the city. The department ran a territory-wide fire safety operation in December, targeting 132 commercial buildings and finding 43% lacking any legal annual inspection documents.