What regulatory loopholes have been exposed by successive fires? How can fire safety improvements be more effective? Expert interpretation
Within a week, fire accidents causing heavy casualties occurred continuously in Jiangxi and Henan, and the lessons were extremely profound. On January 26, the State Council held a national video and telephone conference on production safety. Subsequently, the State Council Office of Work Safety issued a notice to organize a nationwide fire safety rectification campaign to focus on eliminating hazards. "News 1+1" connected with Huan Xiong, the first-level commander of the Fire Supervision Department of the National Fire and Rescue Bureau, and Wang Chongxian, director of the Safety Production Comprehensive Coordination Department of the Ministry of Emergency Management, to share their concerns: Fire safety improvement is underway!
Progress of fire safety rectification campaign
On January 26, the Office of the State Council Security Committee issued a notice that from now until the end of March, a nationwide fire safety rectification operation will be organized to focus on eliminating dangers. This action clarifies the scope, draws out the key points, announces detailed measures, and emphasizes supervision and accountability. At present, relevant departments have sent supervision teams to various places for supervision and inspection. The major rectification operation has been carried out for three days. How is the progress? What problems did the steering group discover?
Why does the nationwide fire safety rectification mainly target the "nine small places" such as small restaurants and small Internet cafes?
Huan Xiong,
first-level commander of the Fire Supervision Department of the National Fire and Rescue Bureau
:
Such places are more likely to have hidden dangers. For example, it is easy for such places to illegally build mezzanines and illegally occupy people. Moreover, it has insufficient safety exits and is prone to hidden dangers of unauthorized wiring and wiring. Training and management are also not in place, and some are even missing. Such places are large in number and cover a wide range of areas, and they are located at the end of the grassroots level. In our daily inspections and supervision, sometimes there may be out-of-control and chaotic management due to insufficient supervision. It may also be the case that due to professional reasons, management is not in place and the management quality and efficiency are not high. Therefore, we must attach great importance to such places, clarify the responsibilities of relevant departments as soon as possible, strengthen training and business guidance for grassroots supervision forces, and improve the quality and efficiency of supervision.
In some places, as soon as the front-end inspection is completed, a fire accident occurs in the back-end. How to prevent the inspection and rectification from becoming a mere formality?
Huan Xiong,
the first-level commander of the Fire Supervision Department of the National Fire and Rescue Bureau
:
In the process of carrying out this major rectification, a centralized inspection operation was specially deployed. On the one hand, we need to carry out overt and covert inspections like dissecting sparrows. When we go to a place, we need to dissect common problems in a place and solve big problems through small incisions. For example, problems such as the occupation of fire escapes and the installation of anti-theft nets in crowded places have appeared in recent years. Why are they repeatedly prohibited? These all need to be investigated and solved by us. On the other hand, we need to increase accountability. During the supervision process, if it is found that the work is perfunctory, the progress is not effective, problems cannot be solved, or if problems are found but are not rectified, criticism must be seriously reported. Those who have serious problems must be held seriously accountable, especially if a fire occurs during an operation that kills and injures many people, we must carry out accountability investigations.
The nationwide fire safety rectification campaign will continue until the end of March. What effect do you hope to have?
Huan Xiong,
the first-level commander of the Fire Supervision Department of the National Fire and Rescue Bureau
:
We hope that the two-month rectification will ① solve current urgent problems and outstanding hidden dangers. For example, to open the life passage and keep the life passage open, we need to solve the problem of blocking the passage and locking the exit. To carry out the net removal operation, we must strictly and resolutely dismantle the anti-theft nets and iron fences installed illegally in crowded places to create good conditions for people to escape in the event of a fire. This is an urgent problem that needs to be solved at present. ② To improve capabilities. Through large-scale operations, it is necessary to effectively improve the quality of hidden danger investigation and rectification, and to effectively enhance the strong will and ability to find and solve problems. At the same time, it is also necessary to supervise the implementation of the safety responsibilities of departments at all levels, especially at the grassroots level, and promote the improvement of fire safety. Governance capabilities and promote the transition to pre-emptive prevention.
Continuous investigation of hidden dangers in production safety
At present, various places and industries are carrying out safety hazard investigation work. As the Spring Festival approaches, the safety production of fireworks and firecrackers in various places has also been included in the focus of inspections. In fact, less than 3 months ago, the State Council launched the 2023 provincial government safety production and fire protection work assessment and inspection work. 20 assessment and inspection teams were stationed in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to conduct inspections. , many safety hazards have been found in many key industries.
What regulatory loopholes have been exposed by the continuous fire accidents?
Wang Chongxian, Director of the Comprehensive Work Safety Coordination Department of the Ministry of Emergency Management
:
① Supervision responsibilities are not fully implemented. Some departments are prevaricating over who should supervise and enforce law enforcement at relevant enterprises and institutions, "taking charge of everything but not caring", resulting in blind spots and loopholes. ② Supervision and enforcement are not strict and unreliable. Some only conduct inspections but do not impose penalties, and some do not implement targeted supervision and law enforcement based on the lessons learned from similar accidents, resulting in problems that cannot be found out even though there are obvious problems. ③The strength and capability of grassroots safety supervision still needs to be improved. Various types of enterprises and institutions such as the "Nine Small Places" have many locations, a wide range of areas, and large quantities, making it difficult for grassroots supervision and law enforcement personnel to achieve full inspection coverage. ④ The main responsibility of the company's safety management is not implemented, and the grassroots foundation needs to be strengthened. For example, some corporate employees and some people lack safety awareness, have a mentality of taking chances and paralysis, operate in violation of regulations, and some evacuation channels are blocked. These problems are quite prominent.
The investigation report on the particularly serious gas explosion accident at Fuyang Barbecue Restaurant shows that some gas companies have been operating in violation of regulations for many years. How to avoid such situations?
Wang Chongxian, Director of the Comprehensive Work Safety Coordination Department of the Ministry of Emergency Management
:
Gas safety supervision involves multiple departments such as housing and construction, transportation, commerce, emergency response, market supervision, and fire rescue. For industries similar to those involving multiple regulatory agencies, the key is to have a tight safety responsibility system to prevent regulatory blind spots and loopholes. Therefore, ① it is necessary to clarify, decompose and implement the relevant responsibilities of production safety around the entire chain of "one thing", and encourage relevant departments to jointly manage and form a joint force. ② It is necessary to enhance the sense of presence and penetration of safety supervision and law enforcement. Supervision and law enforcement must dare to fight and be good at fighting, and cannot "only focus on legality and ignore illegality." ③ It is necessary to continue to carry out training and education for grassroots employees, improve the safety awareness and skills of relevant personnel, and strengthen the implementation of corporate main responsibilities.
Production safety inspections are carried out every year. How to avoid inspections becoming a mere formality?
Wang Chongxian, Director of the Department of Comprehensive Work Safety Coordination of the Ministry of Emergency Management
:
What I want to emphasize is that hidden dangers in production safety continue to arise with production and business activities and are not static, so it is very necessary to continue to carry out safety production inspections. In order to avoid becoming a mere formality, ① it is necessary to clarify the criteria for determining major hidden dangers. At present, the State Council Safety Commission has pushed relevant departments to introduce 51 major accident hazard identification standards to ensure that benchmarking inspections are evidence-based. ② It is necessary to mobilize industry experts and professional technical service organizations to participate in investigation and rectification to enhance professionalism. ③ It is necessary to establish a mechanism for investigating and rectifying responsibilities, and seriously investigate and investigate those who have caused major hidden dangers to exist for a long time because of inadequate investigation and rectification. ④ Mobilize the public and employees to actively report or report potential safety hazards, and strengthen mass prevention and treatment.
The Spring Festival holiday is approaching, and these aspects of production safety must be strictly guarded and investigated!
Wang Chongxian, Director of the Comprehensive Work Safety Coordination Department of the Ministry of Emergency Management
:
This year’s Spring Festival holiday has been extended compared with previous years. The flow of people, vehicles, and logistics are concentrated, and safety risks are relatively high. ① I would like to remind everyone to focus on safety precautions during the Spring Festival travel season, strictly prevent key facilities and equipment from operating with illness, and prevent personnel in key positions from operating in violation of laws and regulations, and ensure the traffic safety of road transportation, railways, civil aviation, water ferries and urban rails. ② Strengthen risk management in crowded places, maintain order and on-site control of large-scale mass activities, and strictly prevent crowding, stampedes and fire accidents. ③Strengthen the safety control of industrial and mining enterprises before and after festivals, such as strictly preventing over-capacity production in coal mines, super-intensity raids on production, such as cracking down on the illegal production and storage of fireworks and firecrackers, and strictly checking the progress of construction construction, etc. . ④ Extensively publicize and enhance the safety awareness and safety quality of the masses, and remind the masses to travel safely and in a civilized manner, and that they are the first person responsible for their own safety. (CCTV News Client)