SAC Vice Chairman Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win Delivers Addresses at Ceremony to Mark 77th Anniversary of Myanmar Fire Brigade Day

SAC Vice Chairman Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win Delivers Addresses at Ceremony to Mark 77th Anniversary of Myanmar Fire Brigade Day

The ceremony to mark the 77^th Anniversary of Myanmar Fire Brigade Day was held at the Myanmar International Convention Centre-II in Nay Pyi Taw on 5 May with an address by Vice Chairman of the State Administration Council Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win. In the address, Vice-Senior Genral stressed the following points –

· First, the Vice-Senior General said he honoured all fire fighters steadfastly serving their duties on fire security of the people, prevention of natural disasters, search and rescue as well as public welfare tasks as public service at full capacity during the 77 years period.

· The First Volunteer Fire Brigade Conference was held with participation of 197 representatives from 19 districts at the Zeenat Islamic school for the girls in Kandawgale of Yangon on 5 May, Sunday, 1946.

· In his address at the conference, General Aung San said that ‘duty of firefighters is very noble in important disciplines. Heroes emerged in armies and so do heroes emerge in firefighting measures. Those hero firefighters are very noble as they make sacrifices without fighting others’.

· During the 10-year-period from 2013 to 2022, a total of 18,336 times of fire broke out in the country, losing more than Ks-155 billion worth of property, according to the records of the Department of Fire Services.

· More than 1,800 times of fire broke out in the entire nation on an average yearly and it lost some Ks-15 billion per year.

· It is necessary to raise public awareness for taking care of danger of fire and making fire preventive measures in order to reduce the frequency of and loss and damage in the fire outbreaks.

· Firefighting measures need to make sacrifice of life and limbs. Those firefighters need to take repeated trainings for having sufficient skills in order to minimize sacrifice in their duties.

· The fire brigade is a colourless organization when it comes to politics because they have been serving the best interests of the State and the people at risk of their lives since its inception.

· The State is also presenting them with titles and medals for their gallantry and achievements in the tasks of extinguishing fire as well as search and rescue missions for the interests of th State and the people in successive eras.

· From 1952 to date, 356 firefighters have been awarded medals—one Union silver medalist, three Independence Mawgun members, 10 honorary certificate holders, one Thray Sithu title recipient, five Wunna Kyaw Htin title recipients, 10 industrial economic outstanding award winners, 23 management outstanding award winners, 36 social outstanding award winners, three Thiha Bala medalists, one Ye Thiha medalist, 16 Ye Thura medalists, 55 Ye Bala medalists, 72 Ye Thurein medalists, 75 Ye Kyaw Swa medalists and 45 Ye Kyaw Thu medalists.

· It is necessary for them to constantly study and learn about the international firefighting measures which are always changing and then make an effort to be able to use them again for our own citizens.

· It is necessary to realize that striving for high performance of individual is promoting the honor of the entire force.

· They need to be complacent and not needy to serve in fire safety work and search and rescue activities for their citizens.

Firefighters, Next, the Vice- Senior General presented honors and awards to U Tun Shwe (aged 90), a famous singer who sang the song "Beware of Fire", Auxiliary fire brigade company commander U Wan Thaung (aged 94) and retired solider and firefighter Sergeant U Tun Kyi (aged 92) from Paungde Township auxiliary fire brigade who are volunteering firefighting activities in Bago Region. After that, the Union Minister for Home Affairs presented awards and honorariums to the retired fire brigade officers and their family members who were awarded honorary titles by the SAC.

After that, the Vice-Senior General along with the participants of the ceremony toured the display of the antique fire vehicles and modern fire vehicles/equipment, Myanmar Entrepreneurship and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) that manufacture fire safety equipment locally and fire equipment from import and distribution companies displayed in the Fire Services Department's gallery. Afterwards, the Vice- Senior General and members inspected the fire trucks of all ages displayed in front of the hall. In the evening, the 77^th Myanmar Fire Brigade Day honor dinner was held at the Myanmar International Convention Center (MICC-II).

Source: Myawady Daily Newspaper (6-5-2023)