Climate Crisis, Aging Society Reshape Disaster Response

The convergence of the climate crisis and an aging population is transforming the landscape of disaster response. As extreme weather events like heavy rains and heatwaves become more frequent, certain rescue operations—such as bee hive removals—have decreased, while transports of heat-related illness patients and emergency medical dispatches for the elderly have risen.

According to the National Fire Agency’s “2025 Firefighting Activity Analysis” released on the 18th, last year’s total dispatches for fires, rescues, and emergency medical services amounted to 4,520,501 cases, a 3.4% decrease from the previous year. However, trends varied across categories, with fires increasing while rescue and emergency medical dispatches declined.

Fires occurred 38,341 times last year, a 1.9% increase from the previous year, marking the only category to rise among all firefighting indicators. Fire-related deaths also surged by 12.3% to 346. The National Fire Agency attributed this to drier climatic conditions and a 16.7% rise in chemically caused fires, including incidents linked to batteries from electric kickboards and electric vehicles.

Rescue dispatches, meanwhile, fell by 9.2% to 1,197,158 cases. The agency noted that reduced requests for bee hive removals—due to frequent autumn rains—contributed significantly to this decline, as such requests typically account for a large portion of rescue operations.

While overall emergency medical dispatches decreased by 1.2%, the impact of heatwaves was evident: transports of heat-related illness patients increased by 12% compared to the previous year, following a short monsoon season and record-breaking heat.

By age group, patients in their 60s and older accounted for 1,021,423 transports, or 58.4% of the total. In contrast, transports for children under 10 decreased by 11.2% to 53,977 cases. The National Fire Agency analyzed that low birth rates and an aging population are shifting the demand for emergency medical services toward older adults.

“The climate crisis and societal changes are directly affecting disaster response scenes,” the National Fire Agency stated. “We will strengthen a more sophisticated disaster response system based on data-driven strategies moving forward.”