Hong Kong, street scene

The above image of Central Fire Station was taken in 1941 at the junction of Des Voeux Rd Central with Queen Victoria St. In April of that year, the Government had begun a scheme of replacing sandbags surrounding essential government buildings with walls of concrete blocks.

The Hong Kong Telegraph reported in an interview with an ARP official in April 1941 that 'the use of concrete blocks lessens the danger of collapse of the protection wall. The bottoms of sandbags will rot no matter what precautions are taken, and when the lower sandbags burst, support to the upper layers weakens and the whole wall will eventually fall.' Such an event did take place in late 1940 when a retaining wall collapsed and killed a passer-by at the Central Fire Station.

1920s Des Voeux Road Central looking west towards Wing On. Central Market is on the left with Central Fire Station opened in October 1926 on the right.