Practicing rescue plans is an important training method to improve the rescue capacity of firefighters, yet the status of such practice has rarely been reported in international journals. Vietnamese firefighters expanded the types of rescue plans to be practiced in 2012, but this activity remains limited and inadequate. This study aims to identify the causes of the current limitations in the practice of rescue plans and proposes solutions to improve the ability of Vietnamese firefighters to practice rescue plans. To identify the characteristics of rescue practice activities in Vietnam, 200 rescue plans and 100 rescue practice videos were analyzed. A survey of 196 officers from 16 provincial fire departments was conducted to identify reasons for these limitations. Officers’ responses from eight provincial fire departments with good performance in 2020 were compared with those of officers from other fire departments. The responses were also compared across the four groups of officials with different work experiences. The method of practicing rescue plans in Vietnam was compared with that proposed by the US Department of Homeland Security. This study suggests that Vietnam should apply less expensive exercises and not depend too much on hypothetical incident scenes. The same recommendation applies to other Southeast Asian countries.

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