The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments to the Fire Services Act (消防法), altering 27 articles in the most significant change to the act since its promulgation in 1995.
Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said the amendments address the issue of how buildings are used after multiple recent fires to better enforce fire safety management systems.
Fire safety professionals have been in short supply since the act’s promulgation in 1995, and the mandated number of professionals — 5,000 — would not be reached until 2026, the National Fire Agency said, adding that the amendments have extended a sunset clause on personnel regulations by five years until the nation’s fire safety sector can employ and retain more than 5,000 people.
Photo courtesy of the Miaoli Fire Department
The Ministry of the Interior aims to convene authorities and executive agencies to complete amendments to 22 supplementary laws to the act, including the Enforcement Rules of the Fire Service Act (消防法施行細則), Lin said.
The agency previously said that businesses that failed to observe fire safety regulations, or which possessed defective or missing equipment would be given a grace period to make improvements, after which they would be fined.
Once the amendments go into effect, businesses found to have contravened fire safety rules would be fined immediately, and the fines have been increased from between NT$6,000 and NT$50,000 to between NT$20,000 and NT$300,000, the agency said.
All retail sellers of liquified petroleum gas would be inspected by safety personnel, while establishments that produce dangerous materials or products must hire safety technicians and inspectors to improve prevention efforts, it said.
Petroleum refinery owners are responsible for reporting any fires that break out, the agency said.
Those who lie about fires, businesses that fail to pass fire safety inspections, and establishments that store or produce dangerous materials or products that try to avoid fire inspections would be fined, it added.
If inspectors find that a construction project is exposed to fire risk, they can order managers to cease construction immediately, the agency said, adding that construction can only restart once local fire safety authorities have reviewed the safety plans.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS