The "Three Key Points" to Break Through the Bottleneck in Enhancing Grassroots Fire Emergency Response Capabilities

　　Grassroots firefighting emergency capability is the foundation of grassroots emergency capability. Currently, grassroots emergency management and firefighting capabilities are relatively weak, which to some extent affects the level of emergency response and rescue capabilities when facing sudden incidents at the grassroots level. This article, based on an in-depth analysis of the current bottlenecks restricting the improvement of grassroots firefighting emergency capabilities in China, proposes that government, enterprises, social organizations, and individual citizens collaborate to form a diversified governance model as the way to enhance grassroots firefighting emergency capabilities, and offers suggestions on how to implement governance concepts and fill the gaps in grassroots firefighting forces.

　　Emergency management is an important part of the national governance system and governance capacity, and grassroots emergency management capability is the foundation and confidence of the national emergency management capability. Currently, there is a huge tension between the importance of grassroots foundations and the weakness of emergency management capabilities, as well as between the importance of grassroots emergency capabilities and the weakness of grassroots firefighting capabilities in China. Weak foundations and fragile grassroots have become bottlenecks restricting the improvement of China's emergency capabilities. The author believes that to break through this bottleneck: first, face the challenges directly; second, implement governance concepts; third, fill the gaps in capabilities.

　　1. Face the challenges of grassroots firefighting emergency issues directly

　　In the 2018 deepening reform of the Party and state institutions, the public security firefighting forces were entirely transferred to the Ministry of Emergency Management, undertaking the mission of comprehensive rescue for "all disaster types and major emergencies." After the reform, firefighting adopted a system of unified leadership and hierarchical command. Because firefighting and emergency management below the provincial level exist side by side without subordination and lack overall coordination, the situation of "national unified, local divided" in emergency and firefighting makes the foundation of the major emergency system unstable and also affects people's evaluation of the reform's effectiveness. Especially at the grassroots level, streets, towns, and communities (villages) not only lack comprehensive emergency agencies but also lack effective coverage of grassroots firefighting teams, and grassroots firefighting emergency must face the following challenges with a spirit of not avoiding difficulties:

　　First, there is a lack of essential bottom-line thinking and extreme thinking. As a unitary state, China has a highly centralized administrative system and characteristics of a "strong government, weak society." Generally speaking, whenever a major sudden incident occurs, the central government leverages its advantage of concentrating efforts to accomplish major tasks and extends selfless assistance to local and grassroots governments, which often causes the weakness of grassroots emergency capabilities, including firefighting emergency capabilities, to be overlooked. Over time, street and town governments as the end of government power and communities and villages as social autonomous units have developed a habit of relying on passive rescue, relief, and aid. Meanwhile, when frequent, regular, and limited-impact sudden incidents occur, the weak grassroots emergency capabilities often fail to provide timely rescue, often leading to situations of "small fires causing deaths" or "small fires causing major disasters."

　　In China, major sudden incidents in modern cities often have characteristics of high complexity, high uncertainty, and high abnormality. Aging urban infrastructure such as gas, buildings, bridges, and power coexists with emerging risks caused by new technologies and new business models. Some unconventional sudden incidents occur simultaneously at multiple points or cause systemic collapse of important urban infrastructure or disrupt supply chains of medical and daily necessities, highlighting the importance of grassroots self-rescue and mutual aid. Currently, grassroots emergency governance in China does not take complex situations and extreme scenarios into account and lacks effective bottom-line and extreme thinking to respond to unconventional and extreme incidents. Meanwhile, rural aging and "hollowing out" overlap, and some remote villages are far from firefighting rescue stations, resulting in weak self-rescue and mutual aid capabilities in case of fire or other sudden incidents.

　　Indeed, for a specific location, the occurrence of sudden incidents is highly random and low probability. Because of this, some grassroots leaders in China lack bottom-line and extreme thinking and do not attach importance to firefighting emergency capability construction from the perspective of coordinated development and safety, resulting in insufficient safety investment.

　　Second, there is a lack of professional emergency agencies. The 2018 emergency management institutional reform did not involve the street and town levels. At the district and county government level, the phenomenon of "transferring affairs without transferring staffing, transferring staffing without transferring personnel" has led to a dilution of relatively prominent emergency management capabilities. In some places, emergency management agencies have only a few staff members, making work difficult and stretched thin, not to mention at the street and town levels.

　　Currently, about one-third of streets and towns nationwide lack professional emergency agencies. For example, most streets and towns in Beijing have Safety Construction Offices responsible for emergency management, with staffing of only 3 to 5 people, who also undertake more than ten other functions such as stability maintenance, comprehensive governance, petitioning, and judicial affairs. Village (community) "two committees" generally do not have dedicated full-time emergency management personnel, and some even have to entrust property companies to handle emergency management work. Additionally, emergency management is often overseen by party and government leaders or armed forces ministers part-time, resulting in relatively insufficient crisis awareness and professional emergency management knowledge and skills. The absence of professional emergency agencies at the street, town, and community levels leads to low grassroots organization and mobilization capabilities, making it difficult to coordinate factories, schools, military garrisons, hospitals, communities, and other entities within the jurisdiction during routine risk governance, let alone break management boundaries to integrate resources, coordinate forces, and carry out strong mobilization and command immediately after sudden incidents.

　　The 2018 Party and state institutional reform achieved the collective transfer of nearly 200,000 people nationwide, with the Ministry of Emergency Management becoming the leadership and command agency of the national comprehensive firefighting rescue team. Because firefighting rescue was transferred from the public security department to the emergency management department, the grassroots fire prevention system "bottom net" built by community police responsible for grassroots fire prevention has weakened since community police and firefighting are no longer "under the same roof," leading to loopholes in community police firefighting supervision responsibilities.

　　Third, there is a lack of sufficient emergency preparedness capability. Efficient emergency response depends on adequate emergency preparedness capability, which mainly depends on emergency plan management and emergency support levels. Currently, grassroots emergency management plans more or less have problems such as lack of targeting, operability, and practicality. The main reasons are: emergency plans are treated merely as "empty documents" or "exculpatory documents" without attention from a whole-process management perspective; risk assessments are lacking before formulation; emergency drills are lacking after formulation; and continuous revisions are lacking after drills. More critically, China's emergency resources are proportional to administrative power, forming an "inverted pyramid" structure where the lower the level, the greater the need for emergency resources, but the scarcer the resources actually are.

　　Grassroots can detect risks of sudden incidents in a timely manner and eliminate them at the bud stage before disasters occur. When complex sudden incidents occur and external rescue supply is not timely, if grassroots have sufficient emergency resources, they can play an important role of "solving nearby thirst with nearby water." However, the reality is:

　　First, the national and local governments invest too little in building grassroots emergency capabilities. Various emergency community construction initiatives launched by different departments only issue the instruction to "cross the river" without providing the "boats" and "bridges," which instead exacerbates the grassroots dilemma of "thousands of lines above, one needle below."

　　Second, emergency forces are limited. From the perspective of urban communities, the composition of emergency teams mainly consists of enterprise employees, property security guards, and part-time volunteers. The personnel stability is poor, professional levels are low, the age is relatively high, and capabilities are weak. After major emergencies occur, during the process of enforcing responsibilities, pressure is transmitted and amplified layer by layer, with multiple "lines" of pressure converging at the grassroots level, making frontline grassroots personnel overwhelmed and causing emergency effectiveness to fail due to the "last hundred meters" problem. Although the government’s approach of urgently deploying cadres to the grassroots can alleviate personnel shortages, there are obvious shortcomings due to lack of professionalism and unfamiliarity with the work environment.

　　Third, the reserve of grassroots emergency supplies and the allocation of rescue equipment are insufficient, and the role of informatization support has not been fully utilized. Many rural areas still face the situation where "early warning mainly relies on shouting, mobility mainly relies on walking, and rescue mainly relies on hands," with no significant improvement.

　　Fourth, there is a lack of a sound emergency mechanism. The emergency capacity of street and township-level governments is weakened, mainly manifested in the lack of scientific and efficient emergency mechanisms such as monitoring and early warning, social mobilization, information reporting, public opinion guidance, and command and disposal, making it difficult to coordinate vertically with higher-level governments and form synergy in responding to emergencies. To complete tasks assigned by higher authorities, street and township governments often delegate responsibilities to communities, turning neighborhood committees into the next stop for "passing the buck." Community emergency work mainly remains at the superficial level of "formulating plans," lacking solid and effective emergency mechanisms, which are important factors restricting the improvement of grassroots emergency management capabilities.

　　In the "7·20" heavy rain disaster in Zhengzhou, Henan, due to the lack of an effective monitoring and early warning mechanism, early warning and response were not effectively connected at the grassroots level, and early warning failed to trigger an effective grassroots response, resulting in significant casualties and property losses. In the "11·16" major fire accident at Yongju Coal Mine in Lvliang, Shanxi, it was found that the grassroots professional initial fire fighting and emergency evacuation and risk avoidance capabilities were still relatively low.

　　Fifth, there is a lack of normalized fire safety education. Fire safety education at the grassroots level in China lacks a normalized mechanism, making it difficult to deeply root and sustain effectiveness. Streets, townships, and communities (villages) do not sufficiently and thoroughly popularize knowledge on disaster prevention and mitigation, fire prevention, production safety, emergency rescue, and health epidemic prevention to the grassroots public, usually stopping at distributing disaster prevention manuals, making banners and display boards, and teaching some skills. The public’s literacy and ability to participate in emergency management are low, lacking the awareness of "protecting one’s own safety," which is far from the requirements of risk response.

　　II. Implementing Governance Concepts

　　At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on the fifth anniversary of the establishment and development of the national comprehensive fire rescue team, a relevant official from the National Fire Rescue Bureau pointed out that since the reform in 2018, China has adhered to the principle of "prevention first, combining fire prevention and firefighting," extending fire management to the grassroots level, actively promoting the construction of grassroots fire forces, with 14,000 fire stations established in towns and streets nationwide, staffed by 63,000 personnel. Strengthening and making good use of community and unit micro fire stations, incorporating fire safety into science popularization, legal education, disaster prevention and mitigation, and "three going to the countryside" activities, jointly conducting fire capability training for enterprise primary responsible persons and employees in key industries with relevant departments, mobilizing grid members and volunteers to enter villages and households to carry out public fire safety education, building a "people’s firewall" for fire safety.

　　Government power is limited, but the power of the people is infinite. Especially since grassroots community affairs are numerous and complex, relying solely on government departments is insufficient; it is necessary to fully leverage the roles of all sectors of society and stimulate the vitality of the whole society. The same applies to grassroots fire emergency work. The government, enterprises, social organizations, and individual citizens must coordinate and link to form a diversified governance model, which is the way to improve grassroots fire emergency capabilities.

　　The grassroots mass autonomy system is a fundamental political system in China. The foundation of fire capability construction lies at the grassroots, and the strength lies in the people. Implementing governance concepts is key to improving grassroots fire hazard inspection capabilities and initial fire fighting abilities, enhancing the safety awareness and self-rescue and mutual aid skills of grassroots social publics, and promoting the formation of a social governance pattern of co-construction, co-governance, and sharing.

　　The characteristic of grassroots emergency management is comprehensiveness, meaning coordinating responses to various emergencies. Therefore, firefighting is not solely the responsibility of fire rescue departments. To improve grassroots fire emergency capabilities, it is necessary to leverage the role of comprehensive fire supervision, implement the "three controls and three musts," and form a situation where the party committee leads, the government guides, and the whole society participates. Strengthening the capacity building of grassroots fire stations will undoubtedly weave a dense "bottom net" and form a comprehensive and coordinated emergency response situation.

　　Grassroots fire emergency capabilities must be implemented thoroughly and meticulously, avoiding superficiality. On the surface, some places have all kinds of grassroots emergency preparations, but there is a phenomenon of "false flowers," meaning they bloom but bear no fruit. Grassroots emergency is like a "scarecrow," difficult to test in actual combat. To improve grassroots fire capabilities, it is necessary to improve fire organization and team building, achieve "responsibility assigned, tasks undertaken, and funds provided," thereby driving the overall improvement of grassroots emergency capabilities.

　　Improving grassroots fire emergency capabilities must be implemented at the level of mechanism governance. As a working model of emergency management, emergency mechanisms can only convert the emergency potential contained in society into emergency strength and improve the efficiency of responding to emergencies through repeated coordination. As the professional team closest and most connected to the people, promoting the construction of grassroots fire governance mechanisms can better embody the concept of "for the people, relying on the people" and "born for the people, fighting for the people."

　　To improve grassroots fire emergency capabilities, it is necessary to build a grassroots fire organization and team system according to the principle of combining full-time and part-time personnel, which helps normalize and institutionalize public safety education and improve the public’s safety literacy and emergency avoidance skills.

　　III. Filling the Gap in Grassroots Fire Forces

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The grassroots is the foundation of the Party’s governance and the source of its strength," and "the grassroots is the foothold of all work, and the focus of social governance must be implemented in urban and rural communities." China has a large population and vast territory, with a relatively low number of firefighters per ten thousand people, less than half the average of developing countries. Since the reform, although the density of urban fire stations in China has increased, personnel establishment has become a key constraint on grassroots development. In towns and remote villages where urban fire stations are difficult to cover, fire emergency capabilities are particularly weak. When danger occurs, fire rescue forces cannot reach in time, turning small fires into major disasters. Therefore, filling the gap in grassroots fire forces is an important measure to improve grassroots fire emergency capabilities, and various regions are seeking solutions according to local conditions.

　　In economically prosperous areas, problem-solving is relatively easier. For example, as a pioneer of reform and opening-up, Shenzhen City has many innovations in grassroots emergency management, such as the widespread establishment of emergency management offices in district streets, the fire department's focus on creating a "5-minute fire protection circle," and the implementation of smart fire protection pilots. However, in economically underdeveloped areas, the challenges are relatively greater. Yunnan Province, located in China's southwestern border, has extremely complex terrain, diverse climates, and frequent natural disasters, especially with great pressure on fire prevention and control and a high proportion of high-risk industries in production safety. To fully prevent and resolve major fire safety risks and actively respond to various disaster accidents, Yunnan Province has comprehensively built "one team, one station" in 1,134 townships (streets) outside the coverage of urban fire rescue stations. "One team" refers to the township full-time fire brigade, and "one station" refers to the fire work station. In addition, all administrative villages must establish village-level micro fire stations according to standards to address the shortcomings in rural fire protection work. Yunnan Province also follows the national standard "Township Fire Brigade" to build "national key towns," "provincial key development characteristic towns," and "provincial historical and cultural towns" in the province according to the standards of first-level township full-time fire brigades. After completion, Yunnan Province plans to build 258 first-level township full-time fire brigades, 497 second-level township full-time fire brigades, and 453 township volunteer fire brigades, greatly enhancing grassroots fire emergency capabilities.

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Public participation is crucial for maintaining public safety and responding to and preventing safety risks. We must adhere to the mass viewpoint and mass line, expanding effective ways for the people to participate in public safety governance." Following this concept, some places focus on building and strengthening full-time fire brigades under the rigid constraints of administrative staffing, which is of great significance for constructing an "all-disaster, large emergency" rescue system.

　　To stabilize the full-time fire brigades, Yunnan Province's "one team, one station" construction uses institutional staffing and improved treatment for team members as key measures. First-level township full-time fire brigades are equipped with at least 2 institutional staff and 8 full-time firefighters; second-level township full-time fire brigades have at least 1 institutional staff and 5 full-time firefighters; township volunteer fire brigades have at least 1 institutional staff and 2 full-time firefighters. Institutional staff usually undertake comprehensive law enforcement duties of the township government, either held by existing institutional staff in the township or concurrently by institutional staff of the township full-time fire brigade. Contract full-time firefighters' social insurance for pension, medical (including maternity), work injury, unemployment, personal accident insurance, and housing provident fund are implemented according to the national comprehensive fire rescue team protection standards, with overall salary levels not lower than the average salary of local public institution employees in the previous year.

　　In addition, Yunnan Province includes the business expenses for "one team, one station" construction, personnel guarantees, equipment and material purchases, and barracks construction funds uniformly into the same-level fiscal budget. Based on physical operation, each "one team, one station" is equipped with independent office space, office equipment, and complete living and training facilities to ensure physical operation, meeting the needs of duty, work, and life. According to construction standards, township full-time fire brigades are equipped with fire vehicles and firefighting, rescue, and personal protective equipment and materials.

　　The grassroots level is the foundation, and the base must be solid. Currently, although fire departments also participate in and cooperate with emergency management departments in organizing drills and other activities, the boundary of responsibilities between the two is unclear, especially in some grassroots areas where fire and emergency management still need deeper integration. Yunnan Province integrates township full-time fire brigades and fire work stations into the county (city, district) fire rescue agency dispatch command system, joint duty and linkage systems for receiving and handling alarms, video monitoring, and other systems, building mechanisms for joint duty and training, joint combat and coordination, and integration of fire prevention and firefighting, reflecting the concept of multi-party participation and government-society linkage.

　　Since firefighting is a specialized emergency rescue force, it is recommended that the national level issue top-level design, clarifying the responsibilities of grassroots emergency and firefighting according to the principle of "emergency leads, firefighting fights": emergency management mainly takes charge of leadership, command, and overall coordination, providing decision support and resource guarantees for on-site rescue; firefighting, as the main force of emergency rescue, is responsible for team system construction, promoting emergency rescue capability improvement through joint exercises and training between the "national team" and "local teams," and also responsible for on-site tactical command and handling. This can avoid the problem of repeated construction between grassroots emergency and firefighting and to some extent correct the current organizational structure defect of emergency firefighting forces being "top-heavy and bottom-light."