Fire and Disaster Management Agency
To preserve human life and property： that is the duty of the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
This agency supports fire and disaster management organizations all over Japan and implements various projects to secure the safety of life.
1. On the scene of disasters
Fire and disaster organizations engage in such activities as fire fighting, first aid and rescue on the scene of all kinds of disasters.
・Strengthening fire and disaster management
What springs to the mind of most people when they hear the words
"fire and disaster management", is the task of extinguishing fires.
Fires are as frightening today as they have ever been; when a fire breaks out, lives and fortunes are lost.
The agency tries to implement many projects to prevent fires and to maintain a support system in order that fire defense activities can be executed smoothly.
The agency also strives to enforce the fire and disaster management systems of local authorities, which bear the first responsibility for fire and disaster management.
Learning from the lessons of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the Agency established emergency support teams for fire and disaster management, numbering about 17 thousand personnel, in order to carry out rescue activities in the face of major domestic disaster.
In addition to this, when huge disasters occur overseas, International Rescue Teams composed of members from 40 fire and disaster management organizations all over Japan, can be dispatched immediately.
Recently, IRTs were dispatched to Indonesia to extinguish forest fires.
・Providing a fire and disaster management air system
Fire and disaster prevention helicopters can play an important role in such activities as fire fighting and rescue, etc., because of their mobility, and their deployment throughout Japan is under way.
・Strengthening of the ambulance service
The agency works to train paramedics and to equip high-performance ambulances to meet the needs of the highly advanced ambulance services, so that ambulance personnel can give more advanced medical treatment (pre hospital care) from the scene of the emergency to the hospital, so as to save more lives.
The agency also promotes first aid training for local residents.
