Binjiang Police Affairs-Chapter 408 - 288: The Alliance of Salted Fish (Part 2)

"What about the funding?"

"There is no trivial matter in fire safety management. Most of the fires that occurred over the past few years were caused by seemingly insignificant things."

Han Yu played coy and continued, "For instance, the massive fire at Jiangcheng Refinery was triggered because a worker carelessly pumped eighty tons of gasoline into a tank that was already full, causing the fuel to overflow and the vapors to evaporate. Just then, a walk-behind tractor drove by nearby, and the sparks from its exhaust pipe ignited the gas vapors, resulting in a large-scale fire.

Another example is a ship fire at East Sea Port last year, caused by illegal welding on a cargo ship docked at the port, where sparks ignited the blaze.

In summary, as long as the Fire Supervision Station is established, there will be many things to monitor in the future. For example, using open flames must be applied for in advance, approved by the Supervision Station, and depending on the operational situation, construction units will be required to take certain precautionary measures."

Director Peng reacted and asked Han Yu with a smile, "Do we have the right to penalize if they don’t operate according to regulations?"

"Punishment is a means; ensuring fire safety is the goal."

"Right, right, punishment is just a means."

Seeing that Director Peng was interested, Han Yu turned to Sister Zhu, "Director Zhu, the fire safety supervision and management of ships should not be relaxed either. When I served on an ocean liner berthed at a foreign port, one of our sailors smoked a cigarette on the deck and got caught. Between the fine and the costs associated with the delay at the port due to the penalty, we lost tens of thousands of US dollars!"

Sister Zhu clearly understood the implications of Han Yu’s words and laughed, "We also want to strengthen supervision, but as you just summed up, we are neither professional enough in fire management supervision nor have powerful supervisory forces."

"The Port Authority might not have it, but the Police Bureau does!"

"Director Zhu, Salted Fish is right; we can supervise and enforce the law together. We are supposed to be your strong support and ensure your enforcement is protected."

"What about the confiscated fines?"

Before the leaders could speak, Han Yu eagerly said, "Taken from fire services, used for fire services."

Zhang Junyan couldn’t help but laugh, "Salted Fish, can you leave some for Director Zhu and Director Peng? After all, this is not a simple matter. Director Zhu will need to report back to the Party Committee of her bureau. The task that Director Peng has to do is even more challenging; to unify the ten kilometers of shoreline fire supervision in the port district, you need the support of the City Bureau Party Committee and the Fire Brigade’s approval."

The Fire Brigade, like the Border Guard Branch Corps, belonged to two rather special teams.

Although they bear the name of a certain team of the Binjiang City Police Department, they are active-duty police and vertically managed.

Realizing that it would not be easy for Director Peng and Political Commissioner Wang to "fight over territory," Han Yu said embarrassedly, "At least half should be used for firefighting."

"Half should be no problem. Let’s talk about the money later; first, tell me your ideas."

"Alright."

Han Yu flipped through his notebook and went on, "If the Water Police Station can take over the fire supervision rights of several district shorelines, we can establish four Fire Supervision Stations, and our Changhang Bureau will set up two in the Port District. This would allow us to properly take care of the entire shoreline fire supervision work.

However, the future work of the Fire Supervision Station is not just supervision, but also needs to mobilize and even prompt units with fire and explosion hazards along the line to establish their enterprise fire brigades. Our Water Firefighting Team can arrange for police to organize training, assist in drills, and routinely conduct joint field exercises with the enterprise fire brigades after training."

"This is important work; after all, firefighting relies on more than just supervision, and fighting fires cannot just depend on us alone."

Zhang Junyan nodded and gestured for Han Yu to continue.

Han Yu took a small sip of water and said unhurriedly, "In fact, setting up enterprise fire brigades is also a form of resource integration, but what follows is not just establishing enterprise fire brigades.

For example, our Binjiang Port has two port tugboats. We need to figure out a way to request the Port Authority to install firefighting water cannons on those two tugboats and transform them into fire and towing ships.

At the same time, communication and coordination with entities on the opposite shore such as Zhangjia Port Authority, Changhang Police Guzhou Branch, etc., are necessary. If a major fire occurs in Binjiang Port or there is a ship fire in the Binjiang Port Waters, we ask them to deploy the fire and towing ships nearby to help extinguish the fire.

If a major fire occurs at Shuzhou Port or Dacang Port, or there is a fire aboard ships in the relevant waters, our own 001 can also go nearby to help extinguish the fire. As long as this agreement is reached, Jiangnan and Jiangbei will be able to complement each other in terms of water firefighting force configuration."

The Water Fire Rescue Team is located at Bailong Port, too far from Binjiang Port.

Zhangjia Port, which is under Guzhou and just across from Binjiang Port, has two fire and towing ships. Helping each other out could really make up for each other’s shortcomings.

Zhang Junyan looked up and said, "That’s a good idea, Director Zhu. Shall we arrange a time to cross the river and talk to them?"

"No problem, I think it’s feasible."

"Salted Fish, go on."

"The next step is to harness every available water firefighting force. Director Zeng, Director Zhou, both of your departments have law enforcement boats. Could you ask for funds from the superiors to install more professional firefighting water cannons on them? If so, we could form a broader water firefighting joint mechanism."

Fear of fire is second only to storms for boats.

Deputy Director Zeng said without hesitation, "The problem shouldn’t be too big, but just installing firefighting equipment is not enough; we also need people to operate the equipment."

"We can help with training, and it’s free!"

"That goes without saying. If you dared to ask me for money, I wouldn’t be taking on this extra trouble, ha ha ha."

"I was just kidding."

Han Yu chuckled and turned to Zhou Hong: "Director Zhou, what about your Fishery Administration?"

Zhou Hong smiled and replied, "Fire safety is just as important for fishing boats and fish ports. Even without you mentioning it, we would install fire-fighting equipment and definitely invite you to help with training. But we’re not as stingy as Director Zeng; we’ll certainly pay for the training if we ask for your help."

"Thank you, Director Zhou."

Han Yu smiled and added, "Actually, the fire-fighting training can be done at your place or by sending people to us. Once we establish a water fire-fighting cooperative mechanism, we might have to pull staff from your team and various enterprise fire brigades for joint combat readiness duty."

Zhang Junyan subconsciously asked, "Combat readiness duty?"

Han Yu explained with a sense of helplessness, "Director Zhang, from the dozens of ship fires we’ve fought over the past few years, when a fire alarm occurs, the first step is to conduct a rapid and detailed reconnaissance to fully grasp the fire situation. Then concentrate efforts to prevent the fire from spreading, using the water cannon and water hoses on Boat 001 for perimeter cooling; and when the time is right, decisively move in for close combat to extinguish the fire.

That is to say, it’s not enough to just fight the fire on Boat 001; we have to drag the hoses and climb aboard the burning vessel to fight the fire up-close. But our fire brigade only has six police officers. I need to pilot Boat 001, the engine room cannot be left unattended, and the rest need to operate the water cannons and hoses on Boat 001 - we don’t have enough hands."

"I see, pulling personnel from enterprise fire brigades for combat readiness duty is a great idea. It not only addresses the manpower shortage but also provides an opportunity for more specialized training for them."

"This is essentially what a cooperative water firefighting team is!"

"Pretty much."

Seeing that his few neighbors had no objections, Zhang Junyan asked with a smile, "Salted Fish, anything else?"

Han Yu quickly replied, "That’s basically it; we’re borrowing advanced experiences from East Sea."

Sister Zhu asked curiously, "Didn’t you and Director Zhang visit Guzhou for an inspection? Does Guzhou have any advanced experience?"

"They’re not even as good as us. Their Water Police Station doesn’t have a fire management department. Water firefighting is taken care of by the Fire Brigade, which has set up a Water Firefighting Team with only two staff members, one fire management assistant, and three auxiliary police officers, mainly focusing on water firefighting publicity."

"What do they do if there’s a fire on the water?"

"Land-based fire teams respond to extinguish it, but their situation is different from ours. Their city center is far from the Yangtze River, mainly focusing on fire prevention for vessels sailing on the Grand Canal in the Guzhou section. As for fire prevention on the river and the riverbanks, the river itself falls under the jurisdiction of the Port Supervision Bureau, and the shoreline is managed by the Local Police Bureau and port enterprises."

"Does Changhang Guzhou Branch not have a water firefighting team?"

"They have a Fire Supervision Department responsible for firefighting oversight, but no specialized firefighting forces at the moment."

...

The conversation among his superiors and several leaders was lively, which left Fang Guoya completely stunned.

He couldn’t believe what was happening; several unrelated departments were sitting together discussing water firefighting issues without any corresponding laws, regulations, or official notices, and yet had reached a consensus on the general direction for fire safety work within both the Binjiang Waters and the shoreline.

The city government was entirely unaware, as if these matters had nothing to do with them.

But then again, even if the city knew, what difference would it make? The fire-fighting equipment ashore was so outdated, and the Fire Brigade’s request for new fire trucks from a few years ago had still not been fulfilled.

After having lunch at the canteen of Bailong Port Passenger Pier and seeing off several leaders,

Fang Guoya couldn’t help asking: "Director Yu, about the matters discussed this morning, it seems that only the fire safety of the Port District falls under our jurisdiction, right?"

Han Yu walked up to Boat 001 and, leaning against the gunwale, said nonchalantly, "When doing our jobs, we can’t just focus on our official duties, especially for units like ours."

"Director Yu, I don’t quite understand."

"Take our dunship and Boat 001, for example. You must think it was purchased by the Port Supervision Bureau from Linghai Police Bureau, but that’s not the case, or at least not the whole case."

"Then what is it?"

"These two boats and their equipment come from the Port Supervision Bureau, Port Authority, Customs, and Linghai City. We rely on a variety of sectors, so we can’t just stick to the tasks assigned by the branch."

"Are we responsible for everything?"

"As long as something happens in the Binjiang Waters, it’s our responsibility!"

"But we only have a few people."

"We had even fewer people in the past, and it was more difficult then, but we managed it for over six years. So we can’t complain or make excuses; no matter how tough it is, we have to keep managing."

The young superior spoke with conviction, making him seem like the biggest leader of this river.

Fang Guoya suddenly remembered a joke made by a pier official at the Bailong Port Passenger Pier canteen, before the "Eel-Capturing Battle", saying that he used to be known as the "Prince of Yanjiang", and now he is "the Water Army Commander of Binjiang".

On reflection, the joke made some sense.

Otherwise, why would he take charge of every incident on the river?

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