A brave calling

Many people view a firefighter's job as dangerous－wrapped in a thick protective suit, rushing into a burning building to rescue the trapped. Despite that being a critical part of their work, firefighters have a more diverse daily schedule.

Call 119, a six-part documentary that has run on the streaming site Tencent Video since Aug 11, follows two teams of firefighters, respectively in Chongqing, Southwest China, and Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, over nearly a year. With the support of China Fire and Rescue Department of the Ministry of Emergency Management, the film crew stayed with the teams for two months and shot some 12,000 hours of footage.

According to the producers, the two cities were chosen for their distinctive "personalities".

Chongqing has around 36,000 high-rise buildings, one of the most in China, which makes evacuation and fire control a more challenging task. Harbin, where the shooting was conducted between December and May, is bitterly cold in winter, with the average temperature falling to below minus 30 C at night.

The documentary also captures some of the lesser-known aspects of firefighters' work, from rescuing a lost kitten shivering on the ledge of a 10th-floor window to using a pair of scissors to get a ring off someone's swollen finger.

Wu Zijuan, the chief director, says the camera crew got used to falling asleep while still wearing their outfit in order to quickly follow firefighters when they received emergency calls.

China's emergency management rules say the response time for a firefighting unit should be within 45 seconds in the daytime and not exceed 1 minute at night, according to Li Baite, a veteran firefighter from Chongqing.

With a firefighting career becoming more professionalized in recent years, a firefighter's routine has expanded to undergo intense training, such as practicing slicing light bulbs to acquire the deft skills needed to cut glass windows more accurately, Li says.

Zhu Lexian, executive producer of the documentary, says the reason for picking the subject was to let more people know about the country's firefighting system and firefighters' work to keep communities safe.

"Reality is the biggest charm of a documentary. All the stories featured in the documentary are real-life incidents, and will help the audience obtain more knowledge about how to do basic first aid and handle injuries," he adds.

In one episode of the documentary, a father and his adult son are seen throwing baijiu, or white liquor, on each other and then igniting it in a bitter family dispute. The father suffered severe burns. The firefighters, on arrival, tried hard to persuade the elderly man not to touch anything to avoid infection. The father ignored them, leaned against a wall, and even had his back on the ground while scolding his son.

"We were very shocked to know that the father died three days after he was admitted to hospital because of a fatal infection," says director Wu, adding that she also hopes the documentary will show people that circumstances can sometimes get out of control.

Sometimes, a firefighter's job can turn into a psychological battle.

In one incident, shot in Chongqing, an online influencer is seen standing on the edge of a roof of a tall building holding a knife after the plastic surgery to reshape her nose went wrong. Standing there for several hours to persuade her in the scorching summer to return from the edge, two firefighters finally succeeded to distract the crying woman, grabbing the knife from her and taking her to safety.

"The documentary wants to praise the heroic firefighters, but also seeks to serve as a kaleidoscope to show some aspects of real life in our society," says Wu. "We wish the audience will cherish the significance and value of life more, which is what we expect to get out from this work as well."