CHAPTER 3:Fire services

Fire and Disaster Management Agency links about 1,600 fire departments and about 3,200 branch stations throughout the country as a network

Practical fire-fighting activity must always consider emerging risks to ensure its effectiveness when applied to fires and disasters expected to grow in their complexity and diversity in the future. In enhancing fire-fighting ability at regional levels, it is important to improve the skills of fire service personnel employed in fire defense headquarters, etc., and deploy state-of-the-art materials and equipment. In addition, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency intends to continue its effort to improve the working environment so that fire service personnel may perform their duties safely and efficiently, and it will also endeavor to develop and improve the comprehensive fire-fighting ability in each region centering on permanent fire defense forces and Volunteer Fire Corps.

001 Over 1 million fire service personnel working on the fire fighting fronts in the country

Permanent fire defense forces mean fire departments and branch stations operated under cities, towns, and villages, which employ dedicated personnel for fire services. Permanent fire defense forces of the country consist of about 155,000 fire service personnel and 10 to 100 firemen are deployed to each fire station according to the actual conditions of the area. Such a large number of fire service professionals covering the entire country as a network are keeping their watchful eyes on our society, ensuring people's safety 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
In each city, town, and village, there are people devoting themselves to fire services as a members of Volunteer Fire Corps. Volunteer Fire Corps encompass about 928,000 members who have other professions for a living. Volunteer Fire Corps were born from necessity and have developed to date according to the respective communities' needs. It is the Fire and Disaster Management Agency's responsibility to improve the environment to facilitate the full utilization of the abilities of the roughly 1 million fire service personnel and members of Volunteer Fire Corps working on fronts across the country.
Further, to enhance fire-fighting capability on the regional level, the Agency is promoting research into the forms of fire services desired by residents and their suitability for each city, town, or village while promoting the deployment of materials and equipment including high-performance fire-fighting vehicles such as fire engines and chemical fire engines

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002 Timely, adequate action to control the 60,000 fires that occur in a year

Everybody has seen in his/her life a red fire engine hurrying to the site blowing its siren loudly. While fire-fighting vehicles include various types, such as fire engines, ladder trucks, and rescue vehicles to name a few, the mobilized firefighters are also assigned various roles. There are firefighters engaged in direct fire-fighting activities using water hoses and impulse guns, those giving first aid to the injured and transporting them to hospitals, and those engaged exclusively in lifesaving activity. At a fire site, a large number of firefighters with specialty skills are playing their roles in a smooth, organized manner, fulfilling the respective tasks assigned to them. Fire and Disaster Management Agency is constructing a system to ensure safer, surer fire-fighting activity including the production of a behavioral manual that considers every possibility at a fire site, for which one will never find any parallels.

Stern drill simulating a fire site

Firefighters participate in drills as part of their routine, which simulate the conditions exactly the same as those of actual fire sites, except that the fire is controlled for the purpose of training. Wearing a full outfit, such as a protection garment and a respirator, an ordinary person would find it difficult to do anything due to its weight. Wearing a personal outfit weighing around 30kg and holding a water hose, a firefighter climbs a ladder. In some cases, he runs around wearing the same outfit and holding a dummy weighing as much as a heavy adult man. At a fire site, firefighters can never stop working for their own reasons. Since they know their usual training may determine the life or death of a person in need of help on a fire site, they undertake training very seriously. Fire and Disaster Management Agency supports such firefighters' enthusiasm for improvement of their skills with various measures.