Fire Volunteer's Roles in Local Community Disaster Prevention -A Kitakyushu Study-

Abstract

Fire volunteers in Japan not only act for firefighting but also act for disaster preventions and keeping the safety of communities. Two surveys were conducted for both the fire volunteers and the citizens in Kitakyushu City. Although the citizens expect fire volunteers to do fire prevention activities other than firefighting, the fire volunteers do not place much stress on fire preventions. The fire volunteers eagerly join local community organizations. Thus, the fire volunteers can play important roles in organizing local citizens for creating safer local communities in addition to providing their own services as volunteer firefighters.