->With the Executive Yuan’s passing an amendment to the Fire Service Act, enterprises are urged to implement self-risk management and strengthen the occupational safety assurance for fire service personnel.

On 2024.06/13, the Executive Yuan passed a draft amendment to some provisions of the Fire Service Act, where such approval is to be forwarded to the Legislative Yuan for review. As per Ministry of the Interior (MOI), 23 additional articles have been added in this amendment, including strengthening the exercise of fire service personnel’s information rights; making fire rescue information always available at the warehouses and places with storage of chemicals, and assigning a dedicated person to provide relevant information during a fire, or if no such dedicated person, then the imposing of a maximum fine of NT$10 million; penalizing the responsible person in charge of the management for up to 7 years of criminal liability should the enterprise fail to implement its independent management and consequently cause death or injury; etc. Overall, such amendments aim to urge enterprises to implement self- risk management to reduce the huge post-fire cost to the society. Additionally, a special chapter is added to the amendment on the safety and health protection for fire service personnel, which requires fire agencies at all levels to implement the planning for safety measures for fire service personnel. Through the stipulation in the legal aspect, the life safety and physical and mental health of fire service personnel during their duty performance can be protected, thus taking a big step on the safety assurance of fire service personnel.

Moreover, under the amendment, as per the MOI, in order to encourage whistleblowers to report illegal activities, the scope is extended for whistleblowers to disclose faults in hazardous materials sites. The amendment this time also further applies to all workers in hazardous materials sites, which marks an extension from the original narrow definition covering only those directly in contact with hazardous materials on-site. Additionally, the amendment stipulated that local governments should appropriate a certain percentage of the penalty revenue received as incentive bounty, while increasing the penalties for enterprises that fail to implement equipment maintenance and safety management. Furthermore, addition in the amendment is, for buildings reaching a certain scale or above or for sites storing hazardous materials reaching 30 times of the control volume, a fine of NT$20,000 to $300,000 is to imposed if failure to implement operations such as fire extinguishing, reporting, evacuation guidance, etc. in accordance with fire protection plans or disaster prevention plans during a fire.

Indicated by the MOI, the spirit of the special chapter on the safety and health protection for fire service personnel is based on the Civil Service Protection Act and the Protective Measures for Safety and Health of the Civil Service. The purpose of the special chapter is to strengthen the work safety assurance for fire service personnel, where the central government is to establish a Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Committee for Fire Service Personnel to put forward policy recommendations, whereas fire agencies at all levels are to establish dedicated units and assign dedicated personnel to expand the mechanism for the engagement of fire service grassroots while handling specific and temporary projects on health examinations. In addition, in order to ensure adequate funds and resources, the amendment also clearly stipulates that governments at all levels should prioritize budgeting accordingly. Where any fire agencies have any violations and fail to improve within a time limit, a fine of NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 is to be imposed to ensure the effectiveness of the promotion of the safety and health system.

Finally, emphasized by the MOI, the amendment this time is made out of urgency. Subsequently, active communication and coordination is to be exerted between the MOI and with the Legislative Yuan and all political parties, including ruling party and opposition parties. It is hoped that all stake-holding parties can support the finalization of such amendment in a timely fashion, thus responding to society's expectations for improving public safety and the safety of those on-duty fire service personnel.