During its infancy, domestic firefighting in Taiwan was under the jurisdiction of police authorities, and seen as a police duty, until March 1, 1995, when the National Fire Agency,Ministry of the Interior was established to administer firefighting nationwide. On June 26,1996, the Ministry of the Interior amended the Enforcement Rules for the Fire Services Act,delineating with clarity the firefighting agency of competent jurisdiction within the Ministry of Interior as the National Fire Agency, along with the provincial (municipal) government’s Department (Bureau) of Fire, and county (city) government fire departments as delegated responsibilities.
On February 2nd, 1998, Taipei County -former institute of New Taipei Cityestablished the then Taipei County Provisional Office for the Fire Department, then on June 11, 1998, the City Council’s Fourteenth Session First General Meeting adopted the Fire Department Organizational Chart and Personnel Deployment Directive, and on July 1st the ‘Taipei County Fire Department” was formally established, after which the fire entities were segregated from police agencies, serving as a major milestone in firefighting work.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 11 of the Taipei County Government Organizational Self-Governance Act of late October, 1999, and as adopted by the Taipei County Commission Administrative Meeting, the Fire Department name was amended on April 11, 2000 to the “Taipei County Government Fire Department”, then concomitant to the upgrade of December 25, 2010 to New Taipei City, the formal name was changed to the “New Taipei City Government Fire Department”.
After the promulgation of the amendments to Paragraph 2, Article 9 of the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act, and implementation thereof as of August 4, 2010, clearly delineating that the “When Self-governing cities and county (city) Disaster Response Office efforts implement Self-governing cities and county (city) Disaster Response notifications,the organizational structure thereof shall be as duly determined by the Self-governing Cities and county (city) governments.”, and on September 29, 2010, Taipei County issued their directive for the “Taipei CountyOffice of Emergency Management Establishment Guidelines”, while on October 11 of the same year, the Office of Emergency anagement was established for integrated planning of the city’s disaster response policies. Then in conjunction with the upgrade to a self-governing municipality, on December 25, 2010, the name was amended to the “New Taipei City Office of Emergency Management”, marking another milestone in disaster preparedness.
