Taipei City Fire Department

To enhance our national mountain rescue ability, Taipei City Fire Department incorporated with TWN Mountain Education Association had hosted the “International Symposium of Wilderness and Mountain Rescue” that was held on October 14, 2018 at the auditorium of Taipei Fire Department Building (No.1, Songren Rd., Xinyi District, Taipei City). Guest speaker, Dr. John Ellerton (ICAR President of Alpine Emergency Medicine Commission), gave a speech based on the special subject of “Wilderness and Mountain Rescue.” After the series of discussions with Dr. Ellerton, we believed that the impression would be raised eventually among the public regarding the awareness of safety precautions in outdoor activities while they’re being introduced to the beauty of alpine scenery and environmental protection. Thus, in case emergency occurrs, familiarity with appropriate incident management will increase chances for being rescue if proper self-rescues are performed at the first moment.

In addition to the public education for the safety of outdoor activities and emergency incident management, wilderness emergency management and foreign rescue mechanisms are also crucial subjects that our emergency medical technicians (EMT) should be more attended and strengthened. But through the information and hand-on trainings of Dr. John Ellerton, our emergency medical technicians had learned related knowledges and comprehended with methods and techniques from foreign countries, which convinced to enhance our national mountain rescue capability.

Furthermore, the fire department denoted that in order to reinforce the mechanism of mountain rescue in the event of life-threatening incidents; they strove for elevating the integration of the Rescue Operational System, unleashing the overall rescue synergy, and continuing hosting several mountain rescue associated courses and trainings annually. With the symposium has been brought to an end, our emergency medical technicians are expected to be constituted with new associate knowledges throughout the courses, and comprehended with international rescue patterns and techniques. Ultimately, the enhancement of Taipei City mountain rescue and safety education could then become the shelter for our local citizens, and even advocates it to other local fire departments and private entities throughout the whole nation.