Swirling by flood 10 13。33％

Trapped by fires 9 12％

Collapse 18 24％

Table 1。2 Fatality rate of firefighters in China and the United States(程姝雯, 2015)

country The average number of deaths per 100,000 fires The proportion of firemen casualties

China 4。8 11:1

The USA 2。5 800:1

According to the data in Table 1。1, the number of fatalities in firefighters is 75 in during the period from 2005 to 2013。 In Table 1。2 the statistic of firefighters’ casualties’ rate between China and the United States shows significant difference。 The average number of deaths per 100,000 fires ’and ‘the proportion of firemen casualties’ in china are both higher than the USA。 This makes me curious about the reason why Chinese firefighters have such a high fatality rate in fire, the characteristics of the fire, the history of Chinese fire development and the main facts of current firefighting system's formation。

1。1。1 Research background

On 12 August 2015, a series of explosions killed 173 people including 24 firemen, 75 firefighters, 11 police officers, 55 employees and residents, 8 people missing, and injured hundreds of others at a container storage station at the Tianjin Harbor。(BERR, 2016)   According to “The final report on the economic loss from injury-fatal accidents of enterprise staff and workers” and other codes and standards, it has been estimated that the direct economic loss had reached 6。866 billion yuan。 Firefighters who first arrived at the scene choose to use water to extinguish fire without taking the nature of dangerous chemicals in storage into consideration, which caused a series of more violent chemical reactions even explorations。("天津爆炸：消防员未被告知不能用水灭火," 2015)

Furthermore, a lot of firefighters died as a result of the backdraft phenomenon and some other reasons when they are putting out fires in high-rise buildings。 On May 1, 2014, a high-rise residential building caught fire in Xuhui, Shanghai。 Four to five firefighters rushed into the fire ground, during the firefighting operation two of them fallen from the 13th floor as a result of a backdraft event and the impact of explosive waves。 They were immediately taken to hospital for emergency care, but unfortunately they lost their lives。

There are so many cases like this one。 Although we regret for their death, we cannot help thinking about the problems which exist behind these tragedies, which once again raised the debate whether Chinese firefighters should be career firefighters or keep their military status while providing the service with a professional quality。

1。1。2 Research significance

Chinese firefighters usually fall into three major categories: military firefighter, career firefighters and volunteer firefighter。 Public security fire brigade is composed of active duty soldiers, serving the main force of China's firefighting, about 164 thousand in number。 The  full-time firefighters are recruited by some enterprises such as a power plant, a petrochemical enterprise or other mission-critical enterprises。 Voluntary firefighting organization is operated by volunteering workers and residents。 A Chinese firefighter usually has an induction training of 3 months early before entering the service and their service time usually covers two years, after which most of them have to be discharged while a fraction of them will stay as a volunteering soldier。