Chongsai, a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, is interviewed ahead of the second plenary meeting of the first session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 7, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

The country's national rescue team has carried out many more rescue missions of various kinds following an institutional reshuffle aimed at better protecting people's safety with intensified efforts.

Chongsai, a national political adviser and director of the National Fire and Rescue Administration, made the remarks on the sidelines of the ongoing first session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on Tuesday.

On average, rescuers with the administration now carry out one rescue task every 15 seconds, he told reporters in the Great Hall of the People. The number of people they evacuate and save in a year stands at more than 400,000.

The team has shouldered much more duties and taken up a lot more missions after the country's latest institutional reshuffle in 2018, he said.

Before the change, aside from firefighters under the administration of the Ministry of Public Security, there were also firefighters dedicated to forest fire control with the Chinese People's Armed Police Force.

As part of the reshuffle, all firefighters, which stood at about 200,000 back then, were transferred to newly established Ministry of Emergency Management, which oversees the National Fire and Rescue Administration.

"Now grassroots fire control squads and stations are on standby around the clock," Chongsai said. "They are on duties and in battles all the time."

Upholding the philosophy that nothing is more precious than people's lives, rescuers with the administration always make all-out efforts and never give up even a glimmer of hope, he stressed.

In a rescue mission in a collapsed building last year, rescuers managed to free a woman after working for six days straight. Via a video link in the command headquarters in the ministry, he heard the woman said she held a belief that the firefighters would surely come to save her, Chongsai recalled.

"People's trust and praise have inspired me and all of my colleagues," he said.

He vowed strengthened efforts by the administration to ram up rescue capability, so that they can better safeguard the safety of people's life and property.