A Discussion on the Nation’s Command and Coordination Regarding Emergency Fire Response Teams

Abstract

Emergency Fire Response Teams (EFRTs) are units dispatched from all over Japan on the request or instruction of the Commissioner of the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. These are used as fire service support for large-scale disasters that cannot be handled solely by the firefighting capacity of the disaster-stricken area. For the EFRTs to respond rapidly and accurately to changing situations in the event of national emergencies, such as massive or extremely special types of disasters, it is important to logistically coordinate their dispatch, advancement/transfer, onsite activities, and logistic support from a nationwide perspective, which in turn requires that the national government’s command and coordination functions be strengthened. In this paper, we first review the issues of the EFRTs that became apparent through the Great East Japan Earthquake, the undertakings that followed, and the discussion conducted at the Fire and Disaster Management Council surrounding the direction to be taken with regard to wide-area command and coordination. We then review the government plans related to fire service support activities, including EFRT dispatch, premised on the Nankai Trough Earthquake and nuclear emergencies as examples of national emergency disasters. Finally, we point out the need to strengthen the national government’s command and coordination functions over the EFRTs, to allow them to respond rapidly and accurately according to government plans in the event of a national emergency disaster. We likewise discuss the institutional measures necessary to achieve this end.