The activity of propaganda and dissemination of fire prevention and fighting knowledge by the Fire Police Force is the summary of work assigned by the subjects based on their functions and tasks in order to communicate the legal regulations and fire and explosion knowledge and make target-oriented impacts on people so that they understand and are fully aware of their roles and responsibilities and self-conciously comply with the laws and statutory knowledge of fire and explosion, and take fire protection measures to minimize the number of fire and explosion events and damages caused by them.

The main purpose of propagating and disseminating fire prevention and fighting knowledge for inland waterway means of oil and petroleum transport is to make the employees and owners of inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means understand and self-conciously follow the State regulations on fire protection. The propaganda contents include: Legal knowledge and basic knowledge of fire protection work, measures and solutions to ensure safety of fire prevention and fighting for inland waterway means; information on fire and explosion on inland waterway means; dissemination of good experiences in the fire protection work. Every year, the Fire Police Force works out propaganda plans, prepares propaganda contents, and coordinates with information and communication agencies and river-port and seaport management boards to carry out the work of fire protection propaganda. The Fire Police Force is required to flexibly apply the propaganda forms such as oral propaganda, organization of specialized training seminars on fire prevention and fighting for waterway means, clearance of meetings and conferences, delivery of leaflets, etc.

The propaganda and dissemination of knowledge of fire prevention and fighting is carried out based on the motto “Fire prevention is better than fire fighting”, prevention first, implementing the four-local motto, namely “Local force, local means, local logistics and local command”. The Fire Police Force has been paying attention to the work of propaganda and dissemination of fire protection knowledge for inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means. According to the statistics of the Fire and Rescue Police Department, during the five years from 2015 to 2019, the Fire Police Force of the whole country held 489 oral propaganda sessions with the content of disseminating legal documents and basic knowledge of fire protection attracting over 130,000 participants; organized 1380 fire protection professional training courses for the grassroots-level fire protection forces, with a participatio of 128,800 trainees. Through each professional training session, the Fire Police Force held examinations and granted certificates of professional training of fire protection for the qualified trainees with a rate of over 90%, and coordinated with the central and local radio and broadcasting agencies to write over 2,200 news and articles with contents of warnings about fire and explosion risks, reflecting the situation of fire and explosion for inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means. In addition, the Fire Police Force of many provinces and cities under the central governmnet organized the work of printing, designing and hanging 166,529 boards, posters, banners and slogans on fire protection at the crowded places, facilities at risk of fire and explosion, key facilities on inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means in the month of fire safety, National Week of occupational safety and health, and fire and explosion protection. The force also requires business owners, vehicle owners, small-scale businesses and individual business households to sign commitments on ensuring fire safety on their own to prevent fire and explosion against happening at the premises managed by them.

In particular, the propaganda and dissemination of fire protection knowledge for inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means also draws the attention of authorities of many provinces and cities under the central government at different levels. The researches and surveys of the author group show that the propaganda and dissemination has been organized with many abundant and diversified forms and carried out by the companies, enterprises and vehicle owners through some popular measures and forms such as: linking the fire protection work with the “good people and good deeds” movement annually organized by the grassroots levels, thereby integrating the propaganda and education of legal knowledge and basic knowledge of fire protection; building movements of the masses to join grassroots fire protection teams and night watchman teams; coordinating with the Fire Police Force to organize seminars, synthesize the situation of fire and explosion, common causes and remedy measures, and disseminate legal knowledge of fire protection to the commanders, operators and crew working on the means. It can be said that the propaganda of fire safety has been paid attention to and maintained on a monthly and weekly basis through the broadcasting loudspeaker system, providing many necessary information on fire prevention and fighting for inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means.

However, in recent years, the propaganda and dissemination of fire protection knowledge for inland inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means showed some limitations. For example, the propaganda staff is poor in terms of both quantity and capacity; the propaganda activities do not take place regularly; there is a lack of materials and documentation, means and conditions for fire protection propaganda activities at inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means; propagators are not trained in terms of propaganda profession and skills; there are no time-based propaganda plans; there is little innovation in the propaganda contents, which have not focused on warning the situation and risks of fire on inland inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means and have not highlighted the role and responsibility of crew members in fire prevention; the content of propaganda is general, perfuntory, and not attractive to listeners. The fire protection news coverage is still limited; the contents of the news and articles have not been refreshed; there is little information; the investment in facilities, funding and conditions for propaganda activities for inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means have received little attention; the awareness of some inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means owners is not high; they are still subjective and disregards this work, leading to a lack of cooperation and close coordination with the Fire Police agencies during the implementation organization.

Some solutions to improve the efficiency of fire protection propaganda and dissemination

In response to the requirements of the State management on fire prevention and fighting for inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means, the Fire Police Force should focus on the propaganda and dissemination of fire protection knowledge with the following contents:

Firstly, improve the quality of work of advising and organizing the implementation of propaganda and dissemination of fire protection knowledge. Being the subject directly performing the state management function on fire protection, the Fire Police Force has a very important task in advising the Party Committees and governments at all levels and sectors on organizing the implementation of activities of propagating and disseminating fire protection knowledge for inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means. In order to well perform the work of advising the Party committees and authorities at all levels and sectors on organizing the implementation of activities of propagating and disseminating fire protection knowledge for inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means, the Fire Police Force should master the guidelines and policies of socio-economic development of the whole country in general, as well as each locality and oil and petroleum transport means in particular, and continue to bring into full play the achieved results and deal with difficulties and problems.

Secondly, consolidate the organizational machinery, improve the quality of staff engaged in propagation and dissemination of fire protection knowledge from the central level to the grassroots levels. The Fire Police force who is the subject in the state management of fire protection and assigned to organize and coordinate with the competent agencies in propagating and disseminating fire protection knowledge should consolidate the organization; there is a clear division and decentralization in terms of functions, tasks and powers; officers and soldiers have deep professional qualifications and are fully equipped with tools and means for propagation and dissemination of fire protection knowledge.

Thirdly, renovate the contents and forms of propaganda of fire safety on inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means in the direction of increasing the period of time of propagation using loudspeakers, banners, slogans, panels and posters. Diversify the forms of propaganda to attract listeners' attention to the fire protection work. Through the development of video clips for the audience during the activities, it is possible to integrate fire protection contents and regularly update the situation of fire and explosion and hazards of fire and explosion of inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means....;

 Fourthly, perform well the work of commending and rewarding individuals with excellent achievements in the fire protection work. Please be noted that the propaganda must pay attention to the characteristics of inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means accordingly;

 Fifthly, the mass media agencies coordinates with other branches, agencies and functional units to further promote the propaganda and dissemination of the Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting and other legal documents on fire prevention and fighting; annually organize well fire prevention and fighting activities in response to the “The whole peope prevent and fight fire” Day (October 4^th); build a separate column and periodically organize propaganda and broadcasting of the fire protection work of inland waterway oil and petroleum transport means on the television; attach importance to propagating and disseminating basic knowledge of fire protection to the whole people and improve the knowledge, roles and responsibilities of heads of establishments ...;

 Finally, regularly organize the meetings of preliminary wrap-up report and summary of the propaganda and set good examples of fire protection. The propagation, guidance and dissemination of laws and knowledge of fire protection should be learnt from experience; strong points, good points, difficulties and problems in the implementation process should be pointed out, thereby having more efficient implementation methods. The good examples of fire protection should be promptly commended, rewarded and popularized.

 References

  1. Government (2014), Decree No. 79/2014/ND-CP dated July 31st, 2014 by the Government with regard to regulating specifically the enforcement of some articles of the Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting and Law on amending and supplementing some articles of the 2013 Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting, Hanoi.

  2. Nguyen Thanh Kien, Le Nhu Dung (2017) Textbook on propaganda and establishment of local fire prevention and fighting forces, Technological and Scientific Publishing House, Hanoi.

  3. National Assembly (2001), Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting, Hanoi.

  4. National Assembly (2013), Law on amending and supplementing some articles of the Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting, Hanoi.