Buildings in Causeway Bay evacuated after large cracks appear in office ceiling
Owners of one of the Lockhart Road tenements subject to a repair order four years ago
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 10 September, 2014, 4:39pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 11 September, 2014, 3:38am
Clifford Lo and Timmy Sung
The buildings are on Lockhart Road behind the Sogo department store. Photo: Edward Wong
A tenement building that was evacuated yesterday after cracks were found in it was subject to a repair order four years ago that its owners ignored.
The Buildings Department has since completed the work - deemed necessary to prevent the structure from falling into a "dangerous" condition - after commissioning its own contractor to do so.
About 30 people were evacuated at lunchtime after long cracks appeared in at least two units of the six-storey building at 517 Lockhart Road in Causeway Bay, where a third-floor flat was undergoing renovation.
Workers and firefighters enter the shared entrance of the two buildings. Photo: Edward Wong
"I am so scared. There's a long crack on the wall that stretches from the ceiling to the floor," a resident of a neighbouring third-floor flat said.
A section of Lockhart Road next to the popular Sogo department store was closed as Buildings Department officers inspected the building and an adjoining one at 519 Lockhart Road that shares a common staircase.
Residents were allowed to return at 5.30pm after the department said the 1950s-era building was safe.
Staff at a maid employment agency on the second floor called police after noticing the cracks. A woman said the cracks appeared after the renovation work began.
"The renovation work above us is very loud today," she said. "The [crack] on the ceiling is as long as two men."
Seven fire engines and one ambulance were dispatched with about 40 firefighters and paramedics. A Fire Services Department spokesman said a two-metre crack was found on the ceiling of the second-floor flat.
Residents are evacuated from the buildings. Photo: Edward Wong
Units from the ground to the second floors of the building are used as shops and offices, and those from the third to fifth floors are used as flats.
Land records show the building has been subject to four repair orders from the Buildings Department since 1999, requiring owners to repair the block's exterior, internal common areas and common drainage pipes.
The owners complied with the first three but not the last order, issued in June 2010, which required the removal of flaking concrete inside and outside the building and strengthening its structure by October 2010.
The department commissioned a contractor to fix the issues in July last year after the order was ignored for three years. In a letter to the owners this year, the department said it would charge them for the repairs.
An owner of a flat on the third floor said the lack of an owners' corporation made it difficult for them to find a contractor. "It's difficult to find other owners since I don't live here," she said.
A Buildings Department spokeswoman said inspection showed minor cracks in units on the second floor but the structure was safe.
She added that the department would follow up on the maintenance with the owners.
