Climate Crisis Reshapes Disaster Response
As the climate crisis and aging population converge, the nature of disaster sites is also changing. While some rescue operations, such as bee hive removals, have decreased due to recurring abnormal weather like heavy rains and heatwaves, the transportation of heat-related illness patients and emergency medical services for the elderly have increased.
According to the “2025 Fire Service Activity Analysis” released by the National Fire Agency on the 18th, last year’s fire, rescue, and emergency medical service dispatches totaled 4,520,501 cases, a 3.4% decrease compared to the previous year. However, while fires increased, rescue and emergency medical service dispatches decreased, showing divergent trends across sectors.
Fires increased by 1.9% to 38,341 cases last year, marking the only category that rose among all fire service activity indicators. Fire-related deaths also rose by 12.3% to 346. The National Fire Agency analyzed that the main causes included the impact of dry climates and a 16.7% increase in chemically induced fires, such as battery-related fires from the spread of electric kickboards and electric vehicles.
In contrast, rescue dispatches decreased by 9.2% to 1,197,158 cases compared to the previous year. The National Fire Agency explained that this was largely due to a significant reduction in bee hive removal requests, which typically account for a large portion of rescue dispatches, as a result of frequent rainfall during last autumn.
Although emergency medical service dispatches overall decreased by 1.2%, the impact of the heatwave was evident. Following a short monsoon season, record-breaking heatwaves led to a 12% increase in the transportation of heat-related illness patients compared to the previous year.
By age group, patients in their 60s and older accounted for 58.4% of all cases, totaling 1,021,423, surpassing half. In contrast, the transportation of pediatric patients under 10 years old decreased by 11.2% to 53,977 cases compared to the previous year. The National Fire Agency analyzed that the center of demand for emergency medical services is shifting toward the elderly due to low birth rates and an aging population.
The National Fire Agency stated, “The climate crisis and changes in social structure are directly impacting disaster sites,” and added, “We will strengthen a more sophisticated disaster response system based on data in the future.”