Chapter 730 - 492: The Result of a 24-Year Wait

General Luo has been seeking Fang Huai out frequently, and the Squadron Leaders probably all know what it’s about.

It’s nothing more than cutting away from the Fire Department.

Many have heard what they should.

However, after Ye Jiahong, who went with Fang Huai once, returned, he began to stay silent about the matter, as if avoiding a taboo topic.

Boasting is fine, but the truly awesome content happening before one’s eyes; Fang Huai actually dared to take action against the entire firefighting system, and especially after learning about the preparatory information Fang Huai had, which General Luo would present to someone other than the firefighting leadership, for the first time he realized the panic brought by institutional pressure.

He suddenly became aware that the Firefighting forces he always considered to be the pillar of the state were not as solid as he thought. With such high ranks, there were many influential figures who seemed unrelated to firefighting but could actually affect the fate of the troops.

Of course, the reality was not as simple as Ye Jiahong saw it.

What General Luo and Fang Huai agreed on was a long-term plan lasting four to five years. Presenting it to the Leadership was merely to show their stance, to give the Leadership an opportunity to come forward, signaling the emergence of such thought and support, to be observed for later effects.

General Luo had always been concerned about Fang Huai’s development in the Second Squadron because, after careful consideration, he discerned the connectivity in Fang Huai’s actions.

Fang Huai also hadn’t realized that some of the thoughts on the firefighting reform in the regions weren’t secret to some people.

Half a month ago, at their first meeting in the office, General Luo had posed a question to Fang Huai, "What kind of firefighting system do you want to build?"

Feeling General Luo’s enthusiasm, Fang Huai knew that he couldn’t let the opportunity slip by and laid out his entire concept of "professionalized reform for the troops."

Moreover, it was the first time he raised some concerns: the voice for transitioning firefighting to the local authorities was loud, and he worried that if they didn’t actively pursue self-driven professional reforms and achieve significant results, they might fail to retain the firefighting force structure.

As to whether the voice was loud, General Luo couldn’t prove it, but Fang Huai also wanted to see General Luo’s attitude to determine if it was worth delving deeper into discussion.

General Luo merely smiled and said,

"You’re worrying too much. The discussion and practice of firefighting professionalization started 25 years ago."

Then, he told Fang Huai something.

In 1984, there were plans to convert all firefighter soldiers nationwide into civil servants and employees within the public security system, no longer part of the People’s Armed Police. However, they feared making a big fuss, and in case of failure, it would be like painting a tiger but ending up with a dog, so they decided to pilot the professionalization reform in Shenzhen.

The result came out quickly: a fire broke out in Shenzhen, and the locally employed firefighters were unable to handle it. Emergency troops from other regions, current active-duty soldiers of the Detachment, charged into the danger without regard for their own lives and quickly brought the fire under control.

The Leadership fully recognized that under the current economic and social conditions of the State, the active-duty firefighting forces were still irreplaceable, and they abandoned the idea of a comprehensive reform of the firefighting system.

And what about Shenzhen’s Fire Department? For lower-level civil servants and employees, becoming a soldier was like hell, and they naturally resisted fiercely.

They had their reasons: the State seemed to spend more on civil servants than on soldiers, but the expenditure on senior military officers was astonishing, and a disciplinary force composed of civil servants was easier to supervise than a militarized unit.

After several rounds of negotiations, Shenzhen’s Fire Brigade did not revert to active duty again; instead, they transferred over 200 active-duty firefighters to make up for the shortcomings of the professional firemen.

However, a mere 200 or so people, how could that be enough for a megacity like Shenzhen?

Last year, in February 2008, the contradictions finally erupted. In the fire in Nanshan, the Fire Brigade could only send out 6 people: 1 operation Captain, 3 squad leaders, and two combatants.

Among them, the Captain could only give orders.

Under tremendous public pressure, the Fire Department submitted a report to the city’s Civil Service Commission Office titled "Report on the Severe Shortage of Firefighting Police Force in Our City," revealing that there were 894 police firefighters, of which only 229 were active-duty soldiers. The firefighting police force was severely inadequate, with an aging staff, an average age of 37 years, the oldest being 53, and 147 people over 40 years old.

There was a flurry of discussions.

It’s often said that many firefighters who sacrifice are young because they lack experience, but most people forget that firefighting is inherently a job for the young. Those who enter the fire scenes are mostly young, so aren’t those who sacrifice also the young?

Without strong physical strength, no matter how experienced you are, after putting on the Combat Uniform and working for 10 minutes, you become so tired you can’t catch your breath. How can you fight then?

Left with no choice, Shenzhen could only announce the addition of 500 soldiers to form an active-duty troop, organized into 14 Squadrons, to re-adopt the firefighting experience of other major cities. In future firefighting operations, they would lead, while the rest of the firefighting Cadres would still be retained.

The 24-year-long practice proved to be a failure; the results showed that under the same conditions, locally transitioned firefighters could not perform as well as those under the active-duty system.

This shook Fang Huai.

Before, he had been too ignorant.

Could it be that there was such a place that had conducted a 24-year-long massive firefighting experiment, proving the very result he wanted to prove?

This outcome both exhilarated and worried him.

What excited him was that in his previous life, after reading online that local reforms were not bad, that the combat capability had improved, that there were more tactics to control disasters, and that they were more professional than the previous public security active-duty system, he shook his head and sighed.

Such statements were simply a smear on the honor created by the past firefighting soldiers with their discipline and blood.