FIRE AND WATER: Firefighters from Beijing Chaoyang District Brigade of Public Security and Fire Control take part in an emergency drill at the Water Cube, the Beijing Olympic Games venue for water sports, on April 28  (LUO XIAOGUANG)

As the national capital and the host city of the Olympic Games, Beijing has stepped up construction of its emergency response system in recent years. The system is a complicated mechanism enabled by advanced technology.

In October 2006, Beijing published a document entitled Planning for Disaster Mitigation and the Emergency Response System Construction During the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10). It outlined four major goals to be achieved in the coming five years, with the arrangements for the 2008 Olympics Games included.

The document specified five systems to be constructed, including an emergency preparedness and management system, an emergency command and telecommunication system, an emergency response team and emergency response training.

The emergency response mechanisms include emergency forecast and early warning, information disclosure, emergency decision-making and management, news release, social mobilization, investigation and evaluation, as well as reconstruction.

The document set up a batch of key infrastructure projects to be completed in the next five years, and called for the establishment of a public safety management system to be integrated into the national system.

According to the document, Beijing is to set up a 3+2 crisis management model. The 3 refers to the municipal and district (county) levels of government in Beijing, and the municipal special emergency command center that deals with accidents involving urban public infrastructure, public health, transportation safety and earthquakes. The 2 refers to the emergency telephone number 110 and the non-emergency number 12345, where the public can get assistance.

"The crisis management model involving interactions between various levels of government and a special crisis management agency will boost Beijing's crisis management capacity," said Professor Xue Lan, a crisis management expert in the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University. "The old model should be gradually replaced by such a comprehensive crisis management model."

Beijing has distributed the Disaster Prevention and Emergency Response brochure free to residents. "The public's responses to impending or ongoing disasters are instrumental to people's survival, the extent of their loss and the cost of crisis management," explained Shan Chunchang, Vice Director of the Committee of Experts of the National Natural Disaster Reduction Committee.

Since July 8, 2005, Beijing has implemented the revised the "Unexpected Public Safety Incident Emergency Contingency Plan." So far, dozens of specialized emergency contingency plans have been made.

On September 7, 2007, the Beijing Unexpected Public Safety Incident Emergency Response Committee officially released the "Beijing Earthquake Emergency Contingency Plan". The committee also requested various organizations to advocate and interpret the contingency plan, so as to improve the public's capacity for rescuing people and delivering emergency relief during the earthquake.

The most modern buildings in Beijing are built to resist an earthquake of magnitude eight, and the Olympic venues are built to meet more stringent earthquake resistance standards. "Now, Beijing has a modern earthquake monitoring network and has set up the first full-fledged earthquake emergency shelter," said Xing Chengqi, Director of the Earthquake Monitoring and Forecast Center of the Earthquake Administration of Beijing Municipality.

On some streets of Beijing signs in both Chinese and English mark the location of emergency shelters. The design of emergency shelters has taken into consideration parameters such as the type and magnitude of public safety incidents.

In the coming two to three years, 20 to 30 large shelters and three to five small shelters will be built each year in the downtown area and in the surrounding new satellite cities. The large shelters will be able to accommodate 1.5 million to 2 million people and the small shelters can accommodate 60,000 to 100,000 people.

In the meanwhile, the city has evaluated evacuation routes and effective evacuation times for existing emergency shelters and strengthened the standardized management of infrastructure, evacuation equipment and the resettlement of victims. Before the Olympic Games in August, the city will finish the construction of emergency shelters in major business areas, the Olympic Village, the Olympic Park, Olympic venues, and in the residences of the participating officials and athletes.

By 2010, shelters will be set up in the parks administered by the municipal, district and county governments, school playgrounds, and the facilities accompanying large emergency shelters will also be set up. These shelters will accommodate the evacuated public in case of emergency.

To get ready for the upcoming Olympic Games, Beijing has been conducting precautionary emergency drills to improve its rapid response and coordinating ability. In the meantime, Beijing is pushing to extend the emergency prevention and response system to the grassroots level. Olympic volunteers have also participated in emergency drills.

Beijing Olympics Medical Support Team has included hospitals close to the emergency shelters into the emergency response system as a precaution against communicable diseases, biochemical weapons, earthquakes, fires and explosions. Relevant departments are required to monitor 10 possible diseases that might pose a public health hazard to the Games. The city has also boosted its disease control and monitoring as well as a relevant communication system. When a patient is sent to a hospital for a suspicious disease, a designated medical person will follow up on the case.

To ensure the safety of water supplies during the Games, the Beijing Municipal Government has worked with the agencies in charge of water and transportation to prepare emergency plans. An alternative water supplies system is available for Olympic venues, the residences of participants and the surrounding areas. During the Games, the agency responsible for water supplies will work with the public health authorities to monitor the quality of water supplied to the Games-related areas and make sure the water supplied meets the national standard and the reference standard set by the World Health Organization.

The Beijing Entrance-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Unit has made an emergency contingency plan. The plan covers the screening of communicable diseases in people crossing the country's borders, terrorist attacks by nuclear radiation, biological and chemical weapons, outbreaks of animal or plant diseases, imported food safety incidents and food poisoning.

Seven weather systems, including storms, extremely high temperatures, hail, strong winds, heavy fog, thunder and haze, are major threats to the Games. The Beijing Meteorological Bureau has classified them into four grades according to risk levels. The city has made efforts to address these problems and a large-scale emergency response drill was conducted in late May.

The Beijing subway system has also made emergency contingency plans for possible floods during the Games. A lead flood control team was set up to make personnel, logistics and equipment arrangements and check the implementation of the emergency plan. Subway riders might notice that food stands and newspaper stands have been removed from stations. Instead, emergency evacuation signs have been set up every 3 meters. Now, every subway station is equipped with poisonous gas detection devices, respiratory machines, fire escape equipment and large hammers that can be used to smash open doors. Explosion-proof tanks have been placed in some subway stations. The stainless steel tanks are specially designed for the disposal of explosives.