To strengthen the handling and response capabilities of agencies and departments in the event of forest fires, the Pingtung Forest District Office of the Forestry Bureau brought together 10 agencies (with a total of 67 participants) and organized the “2022 Annual Forest Fire Joint Land and Air Disaster Prevention and Rescue Drill” at the Garden Villa Hotel in Kaohsiung on October 25. These agencies and departments included the National Airborne Service Corps as well as police, firefighting, health, medical, and district offices. For the first time, through military simulation and pre-recorded field exercises, the aim was to strengthen the overall operational rapport and proficiency of all units to achieve effective prevention and rescue of forest fires, thus ensuring the safety of people’s lives and property and protecting Taiwan's national forest resources. Invited guests who attended the event in person to give training included Cheng Keng-Ping from the Office of Disaster Management of the Executive Yuan, Deputy Director General Liao Yi-Kuang of the Forestry Bureau, Assistant Researcher Pan Hsiao-Lung of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, Adjunct Assistant Professor Lu Shou-Cian of Tajen University, and a team from the Kaohsiung City Government. In addition, senior supervisors from seven Forest District Offices also brought their teams to participate in the event, including the Luodong, Hsinchu, Dongshi, Nantou, Chiayi, Taitung, and Hualien Offices.
According to the Pingtung Forest District Office, Taiwan’s forests are in remote and inaccessible areas, and water is scarce during the dry season. Once a forest fire breaks out, it is often difficult for forest rangers to reach the fire immediately to put it out. In addition, it is often necessary to rely on air force units to assist with survey, firefighting, supply, and rescue tasks due to the lack of water sources and difficulty to re-supply. Moreover, as the scale of forest fires grows, coordination and integration among different government departments are needed to continuously improve response capabilities. To strengthen the response capabilities of the relevant government department personnel in the event of forest fires, and at the same time, enhance the vertical and horizontal communications and operations between the relevant units and agencies, a joint drill was conducted in conjunction with these units. The units included the Third Brigade of the National Airborne Service Corps, Ministry of the Interior; Special Search and Rescue Team of the National Fire Agency, Ministry of the Interior; Pingtung Branch, Eight Brigade of the Seventh Special Police Corps, National Police Agency, Ministry of the Interior; Third Maintenance Office, Directorate General of Highways, Ministry of Transportation and Communications; Liouguei Precinct of the Kaohsiung City Police Department; Liouguei Detachment, Third Squadron of the Sixth Disaster Relief and Rescue Brigade, Fire Bureau, Kaohsiung City Government; Liouguei District Public Health Center, Kaohsiung City; and the Liouguei District Office, Kaohsiung City.
The drill simulated a forest fire in the 95th forest compartment of the Cishan Working Circle in Kaohsiung City’s Liouguei District, above Hulu Valley on Provincial Highway 27. The drill encompassed nine scenarios, including the forest fire discovery and mobilization stage, firefighting by ground firefighting teams, forest fire expansion stage, ground safety management operations and firefighting meetings, air transport and aircraft landing, aerial firefighting in remote waterless areas and riverbed water extraction operations, air transport of sealed water sacs, joint land-air casualty rescue and news release, and forest fire extinguishing and post-fire management. When a forest fire occurs, fire scouts go to the scene to investigate the gradient of the slope, wind direction, temperature, relative humidity, among other meteorological and geographical information reports. Subsequently, the Forest District Office immediately sets up a forest fire emergency response team and activates the forest fire emergency incident command system (ICS). The GIS map combined with the forest fire ICS can instantly display the location of the fire, the support manpower of each unit, and the deployment status of equipment. Thermal imaging cameras on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are used to take aerial photos of heat sources, while real time kinematic (RTK) technology is used to map the extended area of the fire to quickly collect the forest fire data. These data are used to determine the behavior and development of the forest fire to design the firefighting plan and carry out firefighting operations, in order to put out the fire as quickly as possible.
Liao Yi-Kuang, Deputy Director General of the Forestry Bureau, said that under the impact of climate change and extreme weather, more unpredictable disasters are going to occur, and all units must conduct drills to familiarize themselves with contingency measures in case of disasters. Forest fires are one of the disasters designated under the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act. In the event of a forest fire, commanders must be able to respond to the fire accordingly and adjust to changing circumstances by studying the fire situation and directing the deployment of manpower and material resources from all units, in order to put in place disaster relief operations without any delay. The Forest Fire Joint Land and Air Disaster Prevention and Rescue Drill used to be an actual exercise, but it was conducted in the form of a military simulation this year for the first time. Thanks to the cooperation of all units, it was possible to show the results of the actual drill with a pre-recorded video today.
Commander Lin Li-Wei of the Ministry of the Interior’s Third Brigade of the National Airborne Service Corps pointed out that since the establishment of the Air Service Heavy-lift Black Hawk Helicopter Troop, it has always attached great importance to forest fire-fighting missions. They have accumulated experience and developed skills through continuous training. With the spirit of “sweat more in normal times and bleed less in battle,” they have developed the best tactical planning and simulated the scenarios that could occur. They believe that in the future, they will be able to carry out forest fire-fighting work regardless of any fire situation.
In addition, Cheng Keng-Ping from the Office of Disaster Management, Assistant Researcher Pan Hsiao-Lung of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, Adjunct Assistant Professor Lu Shou-Cian of Tajen University, as well as all the experts experienced and familiar with disaster prevention and relief work commended today’s drill process. In particular, they focused on the involvement of various units and civil organizations, the wide range of forest fire scenarios, the use of technological equipment to assist in fire detection and fire behavior prediction, and remembering to calculate the disaster damage post-fire.
The Pingtung Forest District Office said that since Southern Taiwan has entered the dry season, it is hoped that through the Forest Fire Joint Land and Air Disaster Prevention and Rescue Drill, all relevant agencies and units can become familiar with the forest fire response operation process to ensure smooth coordination and integration when a forest fire occurs. The goal is to enhance disaster prevention and response capabilities and improve the efficiency of forest fire-fighting operations.
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