He made the request at a national teleconference that looked into fire safety and the five-year implementation of the Government’s Decree No 83/2017/ND-CP on rescue and the firefighting force.

PM Pham Minh Chinh addresses the national teleconference on September 12.

The Ministry of Public Security reported that the force for fire prevention and control, and rescue has been consolidated with hundreds of thousands of grassroots teams set up nationwide. The public security force, especially the fire and rescue police, has brought into play their core role in performing the tasks.

Over the last five years, more than 200,000 personnel and 30,000 turns of vehicles have been deployed to respond to 18,000 fires, explosions, incidents, and accidents, thus saving 6,786 lives, giving safety guidance to tens of thousands of people, and protecting hundreds of billions of VND worth of property each year.

However, there have been more than 17,000 fire incidents during the period, killing over 400 and injuring nearly 800 others while causing losses of over 7 trillion VND (297.6 million USD) and 7,500ha of forest. Besides, 149 explosions have also claimed 64 lives and injured 190, the ministry noted.

PM Chinh underlined that fire prevention and control, and rescue are important to the safeguarding of national security, social order and safety, as well as people’s health and lives, helping create a safe and healthy environment for socio-economic development.

He highly valued efforts and achievements by ministries, sectors, localities, and relevant forces, including firefighting police, in the work.

He also pointed out shortcomings that need to be addressed promptly and thoroughly, including the lack of awareness and a sense of responsibility towards fire prevention and control in some places, penalties for violations of fire safety rules yet to be stringent enough, lax management by State agencies, limited infrastructure for fire prevention and control, and modest IT application to the work.

The Government leader demanded ministries, sectors, and localities drastically and effectively perform fire safety and rescue tasks.

They need to be fully aware of the importance of fire prevention and control, and rescue to the protection of people’s lives, health and assets, and to national socio-economic development, he said.

People must be at the centre and also the key player in implementing the tasks, the PM said, adding that people’s safety must be put above all.

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Source: VNA