Highly trained fire fighters and public awareness campaigns are crucial to preventing and fighting fire, a French public safety expert said.

Fire fighters need to be extremely well equipped and skilled for the job, Colonel Ulliac Bruno told a French-Vietnamese conference on public safety and security in Hanoi on September 24.

Vietnamese emergency services responded to more than 2,000 fires and 40,000 fire-related incidents last year, the Department of Fire-Fighting and Rescue Police reported.

French experts also shared their experience in supplying clean water in emergencies, conducting search and rescue missions at sea and training emergency services’ staff.

The Vietnamese side briefed participants on the country’s disaster management and crises response strategies.

The event was organised by UBIFRANCE Vietnam, the French Ministry of the Interior and Vietnam’s ministries of Public Security and Agriculture and Rural Development.-VNA