Volunteer Firefighters in Japan
February & March 2022
Regional Disaster Management Office,Fire and Disaster Management Agency, Japan1. Outline of Volunteer Firefighters1Outline of Japan’s Volunteer Firefighters
As of April 1, 2021

Fire Service Departments
About 167,000 professionals
Emergency Responders

Volunteer Firefighters
About 805,000 firefighters

Proactively respond todisasters in their owncommunities

Voluntary Disaster Prevention
GroupsComposed of local people（On-call style）
Operation under responsibilityof municipal governments
Original rank system
Compensation & allowance,
despite small amount

About 45.6 million persons

Volunteer Firefighters facilitate the cooperation between fire service departments
and voluntary disaster prevention groups, and play the core role in the disasterprevention for communities.
2Equipment Employed by Volunteer Firefighters
Fire Engine

Chain Saw

Engine Cutter

Firefighting
Equipment

Flood Light

Transceiver

Rescue Tools

HydraulicCutter

Rescue Boat３

Advantageous Aspects of Volunteer Firefighters

1. Close to Community

Have known their own communities and its
situations better than professional firefighters

2. Robust Mobilization

Have five times more members than professionals

3. Rapid Response

Can start firefighting/rescue activities even before
professionals attend the frontline, as regularly
conducting exercises

These advantageous characters enablerobust disaster response４

Main Tasks in Disaster Response

Courtesy of Miyazaki
City Fire Department

Courtesy of Hiroshima City
Fire Services Bureau

Courtesy of Tokachi Fire Bureau

Fire Fighting

RescueFlood Fighting

 Close collaboration withprofessionals for
effective firefighting
 Patrolling on fireincident site after fire
suppression to prevent
another fire fromhappening Search and rescue, incooperation withprofessionals

 Preventing river flood bytyphoon or torrential
shower from happening
with flood fighting
method Instruction andassistance for residents
５evacuation

Main Tasks in Non - Disaster Times

Courtesy of Miyazaki
Fire Department

Exercises Regularly conducting
exercises Training for handlinghose and otherequipment

Courtesy of Miyazaki
Fire Department

Courtesy of Miyazaki
Fire Department

Lectures

Public Awareness Lectures to local people
regarding first aid
including AED

 Raising publicawareness for fire
prevention and disasterrisk reduction throughorganizing events６2. Case Studies- How Volunteer Firefighters Function in Disasters -７

Great East Japan EarthquakeTsunami

 Instruction for local people to evacuate, stopping at every houses in the community Closing water gates at shore immediately after tsunami warning issued
The disaster was too large for professionals to handle these missions – then covered by volunteers.
Firefighting

 Water resource lacked due to the earthquake, which required long-distance pumping from rivers todisaster affected communities Fire scale was so large and continued for many days
Only professionals were not enough to suppress the fires – volunteers’ support proved vital.
Rescue Instructed local people to evacuate to higher place, and rescued those isolated at nursing homes andcarried to shelters
Volunteers' detail knowledge on communities helped the rescue and the evacuation guidance effective.

Courtesy of Tokyo Fire Department

firefighting by volunteers

Professionals and volunteers working together

Courtesy of Tokyo Fire Department

Evacuation guide by volunteers８Northern Kyushu Flooding and Landslides
Northern Kyushu region was hit by a wall of water due to river floods and landslides caused
by unprecedented heavy rainfall.
Volunteer Firefighters Involvement

The disaster-affected-areas were too wide for only
professionals to carry out search and rescue.
“Robust Mobilization” – one of the volunteers
advantageous aspects, functioned well.
Max 4,000 volunteers engaged in the disaster
responses such as・evacuation instruction and safety confirmation
・search and rescue
・removal of drifted timbers and shoveling of mudand
・emergency water supply and carriage of food toisolated areas.

Volunteers on searching (Asakura City)
９

Itoigawa City Great Fire A fire incident occurred at a populated area in Itoigawa City in 2016 and flying sparks inmultiple locations were simultaneously created, leading to the spread of fire.
 Strong southern wind was another factor to hugely spread the fire.
SeaFirefighting

Necessary to combat fires spreading in about 40,000㎡. Volunteers secured
water resource by pumping water from river with portable pumpers, which
helped professionals keep on firefighting for many hours.

Route 8Volunteer Firefighters proved their ability to back up the professionals
long-period firefighting.
RescueEvacuation Instruction
Volunteer firefighters, who were familiar with fire incident areas,
underpinned prompt instruction of evacuation.
Origin of fire

Itoigawa Station
写真提供：糸魚川市消防本部
Courtesy of Itoigawa-City

Courtesy of Itoigawa-City

Hokurku Bullet Train10