Retired Firefighter in Ofunato to Establish Disaster Management Education Company; Hopes to Make Ordinary People More Prepared for Fires, Earthquakes

By Kotaro Hirose / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

6:00 JST, June 15, 2025

OFUNATO, Iwate — Yoshihiro Chiba, 50, who recently retired from a job as a firefighter in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, now intends to establish a company in the city to educate the public on preventing and minimizing disaster damage by mid-June.

He retired from the Ofunato Fire Department in March, having previously led operations to fight large-scale wildfires which hit the mountainous region surrounding the city.

As a former firefighter who experienced the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the recent wildfires, he aims to teach citizens and companies how to stay safe when disaster strikes, boosting their ability to help both themselves and others.

“I want to increase the number of people whose lives can be saved when future disasters happen, even if only by one,” he said.

His new, Ofunato-based company is to be called Survival Rescue Japan.

In the fire department, he served as a fire lieutenant and emergency medical technician.

He plans to hold lectures about disaster prevention upon request from companies and volunteer disaster prevention organizations. Through his lectures, as well as practical training, he will teach people about how to protect their own lives at the time of a disaster.

He emphatically said, “A key point is how quickly residents are able to notice danger and act accordingly.”

In the recent mountain wildfires, he was reminded of how difficult it is to “predict what will happen next.”

At that time he was working in the fire department’s dispatch office. On Feb. 26, a day when he was off duty, he learned from a public disaster alert that a wildfire had broken out, and he rushed to the fire department’s head office.

There he took reports from firefighters who were on the scene and arranged them, including firefighters dispatched from other fire departments, into position.

Over the next few days, as the wildfires continued to spread, he monitored maps daily and continued to debate whether to expand the area from which residents were instructed to evacuate.

Even before the wildfires, Chiba was considering establishing a company like his new one. He took part in search and rescue missions following the earthquake disaster 14 years ago.

He regrets that “The number of people whom I could not save was larger than the number I could.”

It was when the physical reconstruction after the earthquake had reached a stopping point that he became set on establishing his company. “While I’m working on community revitalization, I also need to share my own experiences with others,” he thought.

In March this year, after the wildfires were extinguished, he retired from the fire department and went to Los Angeles in the United States, which had similarly been hit by wildfires in January, to learn about conditions there.

The Ofunato Fire Department had accepted firefighters from Los Angeles as helpers just after the earthquake occurred, so he also decided to visit a local fire department there.

When he listened to the American firefighters talk about their experiences fighting the wildfires, he noticed that their gear and equipment were very different from those of their Japanese counterparts.

When firefighters went into the mountains surrounding Ofunato to fight the wildfires there, they wore helmets and fireproof clothing of the same kind as they would put on to go into a burning building, which drained a lot of their energy.

In contrast, the fire department in Los Angeles used thin fireproof clothing made of flame-resistant material. The gear and equipment were tailored to individuals, accommodating each person’s physical condition and making it easier for them to move around.

Chiba is looking into using his company to import this kind of practical firefighting equipment from other countries.

On June 20, Chiba is scheduled to host a gathering of local firefighters at Ofunaport, the city’s center for disaster prevention, tourism and exchange. At the gathering, participants will discuss what disaster prevention measures to take in Ofunato going forward, following the city being struck in short succession by both an earthquake disaster and mountain wildfires.

“I want to expand my circle little by little and tell people all over the nation about disaster-prevention efforts that originate in Ofunato,” he said.