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.
On Dec 25th 2012, Tainan City and Tainan County were merged to be a municipal city. Tainan has a vast territory of 2,191 square kilometers and a population of 1.87 million. There are a variety of buildings and nature landscapes, such as historic heritages, modern buildings, traditional old streets, ever-changing science parks, and intricate terrains of mountains and waters, which complicates the type of disasters. In order to provide proper service to the citizens, Tainan City Government Fire Bureau expands with following division: Fire Prevention Division, Disaster Rescue Division, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Division, Emergency Medical Service Division, Civilian Coordination Division, Fire Investigation Division, Emergency Dispatch Center, Secretariat, Personnel Office, Accounting Office, Government Ethics Office. There are 7 District HQs commanding over 53 stations.
Firefighting service covers a wide range of incidents, besides fire prevention, disaster rescue and emergency medical service. In order to provide high quality disaster rescue service, Tainan City has established Office of Disaster Rescue and ambulance rescue teams, all working together to ensure the public a safe environment with high-quality protection.