Looking at the black-and-white photos and tracing back to firefighting history, there stand many stone tablets regulating fire prevention codes in Nanmen Stele Forest. The concept of firefight has deeply rooted in Tainan.
20th year of the Daoguang reign period of Qing dynasty, 1840 A.D., a fire in Tainan urged the setup of ten fire prevention codes. It was regulated to the general public that fire fighting equipment should be purchased with the funds raised among civilians and gave to the representative for safekeeping. While a fire broke out, the representative would beat a gong to gather helping hands to put out the fire. This is the earliest record existed about city fire fighting and fire extinguishing equipment in Taiwan. It also marked the beginning of fire fighting history in Tainan, dated back 174 years ago (now 2014). Starting as Tainan Fire Agency during Japanese colony to Fire Department under Tainan City Police Department, Tainan City Government Fire Bureau was established to protect the life and possessions of all citizens.