Taiwan Today

This short, thin, forty-something firefighter has been working to save people's lives and property for more than twenty years. He commands a thirty-four-member squad. Chang em­phasizes the need to keep alert, because fires, earthquakes, and most other natural disasters give no prior warning—they just happen.

There are two ways of becoming a professional firefighter. After graduating from senior high or vocational school, you can either take an exam and go to the Central Police Uni­versity for four years, or take another exam leading to a two­-year course at Taiwan Police College. I took the second route and started as a low-level fire cop. Basic firefighting concepts and principles of police work are taught at both schools. The courses concentrate on introducing relevant laws and theories, but teach little about the practical "hows" of firefighting, which you only get to learn when you're assigned to a fire station. That's an inevitable result of the system, because all firefighting training is now given as part of wider police instruction. I think things will get better once firefighters have their own school that meets the requirements for both theory and practice.

At present, newcomers get either one or three months of pre­vocational training to teach them the ropes, depending on which district team or support force they'll be in. Because fires are by their very nature unpredictable, the training is designed to build up physical strength, mental prowess, and relevant skills. The idea is to equip rookies with fast, accurate, on-the-spot reactions.

We keep in shape by doing daily exercise: running, pushups, and sit-ups. Besides that, our routine includes check­ing equipment and cleaning the fire engines, because it's not only personnel who have to be well prepared. Keeping skills from degrading isn't difficult, because we have monthly train­ing sessions to keep us up to the mark. Such training is essen­tial if we're to stay at peak readiness; and if we don't, we might get killed or even get other people killed.

Even so, it takes a lot of time and field experience to become a really efficient firefighter. I consider debriefings to be very important. It helps us improve, because we can sort out what went right and what went wrong without any hard feelings. We concentrate on seeking more effective firefighting methods. There are no recriminations.

In this job, the best possible outcome is when there are no casualties and property losses are kept to the bare minimum. In my opinion, the duties that require the most mental and physi­cal strength are laying the water hoses and saving people from the fire. Certain factors always make life more difficult for us: narrow lanes and alleys, illegal roadside parking, crowds of bystanders, and unauthorized structural changes that make the blueprints and plans of buildings less useful and lengthen the time we need to understand the layout.

Our typical workday is quite different from other people's, because it isn't a day as such. We take turns staying at the fire station. The present system is that we work for two days and then get a day off. This means there always will be one-third of the staff off duty while the rest stay here. But those who are off duty have to leave a phone number with the station, so that we can find them if we have to.

We take annual leave, just as other civil servants do. That's the time we get to spend with our families. I usually take my family to the countryside, to get a proper rest. For me, it's easier to relax in an entirely different environment.

Does this job interfere with my family life? Of course it does. Women are reluctant to marry firefighters, not only because the job is dangerous but also because they know they'll have to become much more independent. Usually husbands shoulder the responsibility of looking after their families when natural disasters occur, but our wives have no one but themselves to depend on. We work to save lives and property dur­ing typhoons and earthquakes, too, you know.

I encouraged my sons to do jobs that suited them. It's use­less to force them or try to bend them in a particular direction. You can only do a job well if you're interested in it. One of my sons serves as a policeman and the other is a soldier.

Because most fires are started by people who fail to take simple precautions, the weather almost always becomes an accomplice. In my experience, autumn and the periods before the two New Year holidays [January 1st and Chinese New Year] are our busiest times. Just as the old Chinese proverb says, "Be careful when the sky is crisp and everything is dry." There's nor­mally no annual leave available during those periods. Actually, even when we've accumulated more than three weeks' annual leave, we're still encouraged not to take too long a break.

We enjoy the same insurance, allowances, and compensation as other government employees. But we face unpredictable dangers on each job, and some firefighters do buy extra life in­surance. The premium's very high, however, and there's a ceil­ing on the coverage. Besides, we work much longer hours than ordinary workers—they work a forty-four hour week, four hours less than us. Our work is out of proportion to the pay we get.

What's more, our workload has become heavier with the increase in population. In the past, Taipei's firefighter-citizen ratio was one to a thousand, but now it's about one to four thou­sand. I think the workload is going to reduce after we increase the number of firefighters from the current 935 to the planned 1,600. Ideally we should work every other day, instead of two days in three.

It would make our work easier if everyone who dialed 119 [Taiwan's emergency and fire service number] gave a correct location for the fire. The more they can tell us about the situation the better, because we need different equipment under differ­ent conditions: smoke, flames, explosions, and so on. And I wish that primary schools would send teachers rather than clerks to learn about fire prevention. That way the teachers would be able to in­struct pupils in at least two things: basic knowledge of fire pre­vention, and the dangers involved in being a spectator.

Firefighting volunteers? They're important in the country­-side, because they're considered part of the fire brigade whenever there's a personnel shortage. But in Taipei city, volunteers have their own organizations. I do appreciate their help, but I'd prefer to confine them to controlling crowds at fire scenes. Why? Well, they don't have the training we do, and they may not have enough protection, clothing, or a well-developed sense of danger.

I've had a look at some of our foreign counterparts. I've been sent to the United States and the Philippines. The impres­sion I got was that they have better-equipped firefighting schools. I also had a three-month training stint in Japan. I think what we can learn from the Japanese is a spirit of obedience. And they conduct every exercise with great precision. There may be cultural differences, but I still think that we can learn something from their work ethic.

I've been a firefighter my whole working life. Why did I choose the job? Two main reasons, I think. I always felt a great desire to help others in need. It suits my nature, help­ing others. And of course the job enables me to do my bit as a family breadwinner.