China News Service, Guilin, September 18th, title: Foreigners in Guilin: "Foreign faces" in West Street fighting side by side with "Flame Blue"
Author: Zhou Liang
In recent years, the West Street in Yangshuo County, Guilin City, Guangxi Province, known as the "global village", has more than 5,000 permanent foreigners, and Yangshuo West Street is also known as the "Foreigner Street".
Yangshuo West Street is mostly antique buildings, with low fire resistance, dense buildings and heavy fire load, which has always been the "old difficulty" problem of local fire protection work.
Mathias and Yangshuo West Street Fire Station members ride out in a miniature fire truck.
Photo by Ye Qing
In order to realize the “internationalization” of local fire protection and solve the dilemma that the firefighters of Yangshuo West Street Fire Station often encounter language communication difficulties during daily fire inspections and the popularization of fire safety knowledge, the Guilin Fire Rescue Detachment cleverly used some foreign countries that have settled in Guilin for a long time. Friends, established a West Street foreign firefighting volunteer team that has been volunteering for the fire department for a long time.
This "special" firefighting volunteer team consists of foreign friends from different countries who live in Yangshuo. Most of them are employees of the Rosewood Restaurant on West Street in Yangshuo.
Since the opening of the Rosewood Restaurant in 1999, Huang Jialong, the leader of the West Street foreign firefighting volunteer team and restaurant owner, has attached great importance to fire safety, and was the first to install a simple spray and independent smoke alarm in the restaurant. One of the most complete shops.
Huang Jialong also regularly organizes foreign employees to participate in various fire protection public welfare activities carried out by the local fire department.
“Some foreign employees work in our restaurant to learn Chinese. They not only use their language advantages to popularize fire safety knowledge to foreign friends living here, but also promote fire safety knowledge to Chinese tourists. While learning things, they also help More people." Huang Jialong introduced.
Mathias and Yangshuo West Street Fire Station team used fire hoses to "extinguish the fire."
Photo by Ye Qing
In November 2013, Guilin Fire and Yangshuo West Street Rosewood Restaurant established the "Guilin International Fire Club" on the second floor of the restaurant, aiming to allow more foreign friends in various occupations to participate in fire protection volunteer publicity activities .
At the beginning of 2017, Yogi, a firefighting volunteer from India, joined the team. He said that he joined the team with a passion for firefighting. Everyone often gathers together on weekends or festivals to exchange and learn from each other, sometimes with Yangshuo West. The members of the street fire station carried out fire rescue training, firefighting facility inspections, learned firefighting knowledge, improved their comprehensive capabilities, and became a firefighting "master".
Mathias and Yangshuo West Street Fire Station inspected fire extinguishers in shops.
Photo by Ye Qing
"The fire extinguisher pressure gauge is divided into three color areas. Yellow means excessive pressure, green means normal pressure, and red means insufficient pressure. When choosing a fire extinguisher, the pointer should be in the green area." "When extinguishing a fire, aim at the root of the fire. Fire the fire, and you must stand in the direction of the wind." In a coffee shop, Yogi held a fire extinguisher in his hand and was able to spread the use of fire extinguishers and points to tourists with ease.
Yogi, who has been in China for more than two years, said: “When carrying out fire protection propaganda, when I met Chinese friends, I used Chinese to communicate with them. Chinese friends would listen carefully to the fire safety knowledge I passed on, and gave me thumbs up. This will not only promote fire safety knowledge, but also greatly improve my Chinese level, which is really cool."
Yogi (left), Mathias (right) and firefighting officers carried out fire protection propaganda to shop owners during the Spring Festival.
Photo by Ye Qing
Phung, a girl from Thailand, is also a member of the West Street Foreign Fire Fighting Volunteer Team. She is enthusiastic about participating in various charity activities in her hometown. After coming to Yangshuo, she also joined the West Street Foreign Fire Fighting Volunteer Team and became a fire propaganda member.
When the local fire department uses the publicity vehicle to carry out mobile publicity, Phung and his companions will carry out publicity activities with the vehicle as long as they have time.
"Hello, we are carrying out fire protection publicity activities. Welcome to experience the fire protection vehicle. You can learn how to connect the water hose!" "The alarm is early and the loss is small. If there is a fire, call the fire alarm number 119 in time." Phung and The companion patiently spreads fire safety knowledge to passing tourists.
Speaking of this special status in a foreign country, Phung said: "Up to now, we have distributed tens of thousands of flyers and participated in fire safety inspections hundreds of times."
"The boss is happy for the New Year. The weather is dry in winter. You must pay attention to the safety of using fire and electricity!" During the Spring Festival of 2019, the German chef Mathias, who has worked in Rosewood Restaurant for 7 years, walked with the firefighters of Yangshuo West Street Fire Station Going to the streets to remind shop owners to pay attention to fire safety, he thinks it is meaningful to launch fire protection propaganda for the Chinese New Year.
In addition, as an "old member" of the foreign firefighting volunteer team in West Street, Mathias can almost be seen in the joint drills organized by the local fire department every month. He can be seen at the West Street Fire Station in Yangshuo for a series of professional fire fighting operations. Finished skillfully with the cooperation of the team members.
In addition to fire drills, Mathias also learned from the firefighting equipment inspection methods of the West Street Fire Station in Yangshuo. He regularly inspects the fire extinguishers and fire hydrants in the restaurant to ensure that they are complete and functional.
Phung and other foreign firefighting volunteers carried out firefighting propaganda vehicles following the propaganda.
Photo by Ye Qing
According to statistics, up to now, the West Street Foreign Fire Fighting Volunteer Team composed of nearly 10 foreign friends from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy and other countries has cooperated with the local fire department to distribute more than 125,700 flyers for West Street owners and tourists to answer fire prevention for the masses. There were more than 8,500 questions, assisted the local fire department to carry out 895 fire safety inspections, with more than 100,000 educated people, and contributed to the fire protection cause of Yangshuo West Street.