Beijing to expand civil disaster response training

Beijing Civil Defence (BCD) announced Wednesday that they will carry out security assessments in some pilot residential communities and then make targeted training programs in disaster response.

The Global Times learnt from the experts at the PLA Anti-Chemical Command & Engineering College that response to epidemic diseases, fire disasters, geological disasters, floods or gas poisonings will be involved in the security assessment.

Han Xiao, vice director with the publicity and education department of BCD, told the Global Times Wednesday that since 2006, BCD has given training on withstanding all kinds of disasters to residents, but the coverage rate is not very high.

"Public demand for training about security has increased, so we've been thinking of ways to improve the training's coverage rate and effectiveness," she said.

Staff members of BCD went to Haidian district Wednesday morning to give a training session about security assessments to 29 officials who are in charge of the district's public security, the Legal Mirror reported.

Three to five pilot communities in Haidian district will be selected to conduct such assessments, and if it proves to be feasible they will extend it to the whole city, said Han.

"In the past, we've provided training to residents with the assumption that all communities have the same security risks. But now we are trying to identify the specific risks in each different community, make a package of methods to deal with the risks and then train the residents," she said.

A female staff member with the Laojie residents' committee, Haidian district, who asked not to be named, said that the community has not received any notice about the training from BCD yet.

"But if the training is useful, I think residents will participate," she said.

Last month, the Beijing government released a notice to promote the assessment and control of security risks in residential communities.

It said that a disaster distribution map in each community should be compiled and shown to residents as a way to better deal with unexpected disasters or emergencies, the Legal Mirror reported.