Basic Report

The purpose of this study is to define the concept of fire-fighting governance as ‘all activities related to decision making and implementation in the process of fire prevention, suppression, and rescue services’ and to examine both formal and informal aspects of the governance and analyze governance structure and actors to suggest strategies to strengthen governance of local fire agencies.
   Given this purpose, the Chapter 2 reviews related theoretical discussions on ‘fire-fighting’ and ‘governance’, and discusses the concept of ‘fire-fighting governance.’ The Chapter 3 analyzes formal aspects of the governance and the Chapter 4 analyzes informal aspects of the governance.
   Based on the analysis of laws, organizations, budgets, manpower and equipments, Chapter 2 provides several suggestions to improve the governance. First of all, it is necessary to remove the blind spots of fire safety and reduce inefficiency caused by separate but redundant regulations, and clarify terms in the laws and regulations. Second, connection and cooperation between the fire agencies and general administrations should be strengthened. Third, the concept of fire-fighting personnels and facilities should be expanded by reflecting the demand of the public, and work standards should be re-established to reinforce the connection of fire-fighting works. Fourth, it is necessary to ensure the predictability and reliability of the governance by clarifying the standards or requirements for installing crisis response mechanisms.
   Based on the analysis of survey of on-site fire-fighters’ perceptions of cooperation, trust, culture, and performance in the governance, Chapter 4 provides that the perception of cooperation and culture showed relatively high scores, and the perception of trust and performance showed relatively low scores. Regarding the governance structure, the overall perception of fire-fighters in the field showed high scores for network creation, education and training, and cooperation systems, and relatively low scores for resource sharing. In order to strengthen the governance, it is necessary to increase trust between agencies and increase the accuracy and speed of decision-making through cooperation with related organizations. In addition, policy efforts to share operational plans and informations with participants in the governance should be continued.
   Next, the AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process) results of the Chapter 4 show that establishing an integrated command system, which is a sub-component of leadership, was the most important factor. It was found that the importance of preparing a plan, reinforcing response equipments, improving response manuals, preparing inter-agency coordination plans, and establishing networks were highly important. In addition, training employees, setting common goals, holding regular meetings, and dispatching order systems should be continuously promoted to improve governance system. Lastly, in order for the governance to work well in the field, an accurate and rapid situation judgment and a fast decision-making by the field commander are required. Practical education and training on command capability should be strengthened to cultivate the experience and competency of field commanders.