National Fire Agency, Ministry of the Interior > Latest News > Press Releases > Law amendments made to include safety assurance for fire service personnel – Director-General HSIAO Huang-Chang: Forward progress for fire safety

The fire that broke out at Taiwan's Pingtung Golf Factory on 2023/09/22 has caused the death of four firefighters. The society looked forward to strengthening the safety of firefighters in disaster relief. On the afternoon of 2024/04/02, a discussion meeting was held by the National Fire Agency (NFA) on the draft chapter “Safety and Health” of the Fire Service Act. As per Director-General HSIAO Huan-Chang of the NFA, in addition to promoting the safety management work for fire service personnel from the institutional and planning aspects, the National Fire Agency (NFA) also proposed work safety norms for fire service personnel from the legal aspect, allowing a giant leap on the forward progress for the safety assurance of fire service personnel.

According to HSIAO, during the consultation meeting on 2023/10/12, the Executive Yuan discussed the legal direction for the fire service personnel’s safety; however, no resolution was made due to the extensive contents therein. Relevant agencies were requested to continue to take stock of needs for safety assurance, with reference to relevant domestic and foreign systems and regulations, to put forward suitable legal norms for the safety of fire service personnel. Therefore, with reference to the NFPA1500 standards set by National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), while taking stock of key points in the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Civil Service Protection Act, and the Protective Measures for Safety and Health of the Civil Service, a special chapter on the work safety for fire service personnel was put forward to be incorporated into the Fire Service Act, with the consideration of special risks associated with firefighters and their needs in disaster relief tasks. This special chapter is tailor-made for the safety of fire service personnel, aiming to provide the best safety assurance for fire service personnel.

This draft amendment constitutes special assurance for the safety and health of fire service personnel. The focus of the amendment lies in the establishment of a central Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Committee to put forward policy recommendations, whereas fire agencies at all levels are to establish dedicated units and assign dedicated personnel (where the Director is required to preside over the safety protection team) 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. As for other general assurance matters for fire service personnel, the Civil Service Protection Act and the Protective Measures for Safety and Health of the Civil Service shall still be applicable.

As particularly emphasized by the National Fire Agency (NFA), the legal system for the safety of fire service personnel should not be randomly adopted as blindly picking up an answer to a multiple-choice question, where legal systems with different attributes cannot be rashly applied to fire service personnel. This time, the special chapter on work safety has been incorporated into the Fire Service Act, coupled with the itinerant counseling from the practice aspect and subsequently the execution of mid-term programs, allows the work safety of the fire service personnel to ultimately shape into a unique safety culture, ranging from providing good equipment and devices, to constructing a thorough management system, only then can the safety of the fire service personnel be truly and pragmatically assured. Since 2020, the National Fire Agency (NFA) began planning the work safety management for the fire service personnel. In 2022, the NFA entrusted a professional team to formulate relevant operating models such as organizational structures, plan guidance, checklists, etc. Such operating models were then put to trial operation at the New Taipei City Government Fire Department and the Keelung Port Fire Brigade. In 2023, 8 fire agencies including the Tainan City Government Fire Department accepted the counseling on such operating models. In 2024, it is expected to continue to promote the counseling work for the remaining 16 fire agencies. To this end, all fire agencies across Taiwan are to continuously improve their fire safety and health management mechanism through the process of planning, execution, checking, and action.

According to Director-General HSIAO of the NFA, in order to assist local fire agencies in practically implementing safety and health protection, the NFA is developing a five-year mid-term program for promoting fire work safety and health protection. NDA is to provide subsidies to assist local fire agencies in setting up counseling teams, improve internal safety facilities/ environments and health examinations, expand trainings on safety and health as well as for incident safety officers; in addition, the NDA also plans memorial activities for those falling firefighters who died in the line of duty, so as to comprehensively enhance the safety awareness and safety assurance of the fire service personnel.

With re-emphasis by the NFA, this meeting convened the fire agencies and relevant ministries and councils across Taiwan, and invited the National Civil Service Association and some other associations to participate in the discussion. The aim of the meeting was to hear the valuable opinions of various units on the legal work for fire safety and health, to understand ideas of all parties from the perspective of safety needs of the fire service personnel, and to incorporate such opinions and ideas as references into subsequent improvements of the legal work. After thorough discussions among the attendees of the meeting, the clauses in the special chapter on the work safety were preliminarily incorporated into the Fire Service Act. Subsequent work procedures are to be handled in accordance with the law to ensure that the future legal system can better meet the goals promoted through the fire safety and health system and can be in line with the first-line firefighters for safety improvement.

修法納入消防人員工作安全保障蕭煥章：消防安全向前邁進