Fire Department Rope Rescue Competition debuts in Nantou, 27 domestic and foreign elite teams compete in the same field

The Ministry of Interior Fire Department held the opening ceremony of the "115 Years Ministry of Interior Fire Department Rope Rescue International Elite Competition (Grimp Taiwan)" at the Nantou Training Center today (13th). This year's event entered its third edition and was upgraded to the "International Elite Competition" for the first time. It gathered 18 domestic teams from fire departments and fire department special search and rescue teams from 16 counties and cities in Taiwan, as well as 9 top international teams from Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, the United States, Hungary and European teams. A total of 27 teams competed in a three-day practical rescue competition. Firefighting Director Xiao Huanzhang said in his speech, "We hope that through high-intensity competition exchanges and the establishment of the World Alliance for Disaster Management (WADM), our country's rescue capabilities will continue to be closely integrated with the world."

Xiao Huanzhang pointed out that the competition schedule will run from the 13th to the 15th. The level design is derived from the well-known GRIMP DAY competition concept in Belgium, Europe. It combines complex environments such as mountains, waters, rapids, landslides and collapsed buildings, covering multiple scenarios such as high-altitude rappelling, suspension rescue, crossing obstacles and escaping from collapsed buildings. It comprehensively tests the technology, physical fitness and team understanding of the participating teams. Looking back at the past two events, the first one the year before last was won by the Japanese START team; last year it was expanded to include 25 teams from 5 countries, with the Up State team from Japan's Gunma Prefecture winning the championship, and the Kaohsiung City Fire Department KRRT team winning the runner-up, which showed the strong strength of Taiwan's rescue team and made this event more interesting.

Xiao Huanzhang also mentioned that on October 1 this year, our country officially received the American Fire Protection Association NFPA 1006 "Professional Qualification Standard for Technical Rescue Personnel" rope rescue and passenger car rescue general certification at the International Fire Service Certification Conference (IFSAC) autumn annual meeting in the United States, which symbolizes that Taiwan's technical rescue training system has been highly recognized internationally.

Xiao Huanzhang emphasized that "disaster relief knows no borders. Competition is one thing, but making friends is even more important." He hoped that the rescue elites from various countries would establish a deep friendship and tacit understanding during the three-day competition. If they meet at an international disaster relief site in the future, they can quickly work together to complete the task, and continue to build the Fire Department Training Center into an important platform for rope rescue technology exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region, pushing Taiwan's disaster relief soft power to the international stage.