South Korea Fire Service - info from Kangwon Province FD on 20 May 2000
Fire Service of Korea
The Korean Peninsula lies in Far Eastern Asia, northwest of Japan. Since 1948, the peninsula has been divided into two parts, the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the south, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north.
The Korean Peninsula consists of 222,154 square kilometres, almost the same size as the UK or Romania. The administrative area of ROK is 99,329 square kilometres, slightly larger than Hungary or Portugal, and a little smaller than Iceland.
The ROK has a population of approximately 45 million. The Korean administrative district consists of 7 Metropolitan Cities and 9 Provinces. Seoul is the capital and the largest city in Korea. The population of Seoul is about 11 million, and its area covers 605.74 square kilometres.
The first organised fire protection in Korea was recorded in 1426 AD, while the first fire station was established in Seoul in 1925. By 1992, every province and metropolitan city established its own fire department, and every mayor or governor had the responsibility for administration the fire services. But the (National) Fire Administration Bureau under the Civil Defence HQ still had authority to control and order every Fire Department's role.
FIREFIGHTING RESOURCES
The budget for the fire service in 2000 is 889,477 million Won (About US$ 741 million). This shows a 2.4% increase over last year. It is about 1.04% of the total budget of Korea.
Korea's fire services have many kinds of appliances; 2,775 pumpers, 239 chemical trucks, 310 aerial ladders, 99 floodlight wagons, 1,062 ambulances, 157 rescue trucks, 15 fire helicopters, and 13 fire boats. Firefighting helicopters, aerial ladders, and almost all the rescue equipment is imported from other countries. There are 104,800 fire personnel in Korea and 22,405 of these are career firefighters, the others being volunteer firefighters. Around 257 industrial operations which store or handle hazardous materials currently maintain their own private fire brigades.
The fire department incorporates rescue and ambulance services, and this responsibility is becoming more important than any other. Since a stepping up of public relations, the number of responses for this services is increasing rapidly. Today firefighters can be seen wherever a rescue-related disaster breaks out. In addition to these activities, the Fire Laboratory in the National Fire Academy provides all hazmat-related data and information for judging whether or not unidentified materials are hazardous to fire departments and industry workers. In July 1978. the first fire academy, the National Fire Academy, was established.
KOREA'S DISASTERS
In the 1990s, Korea's fire services had to handle a number of tragic disasters; the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store building and the Songsoo Bridge over the Han river, the crash of a passenger jet and an explosion in a subway construction site, among others. The worst catastrophe to occur in recent years was the Sampoong disaster in Seoul. After the Sampoong incident, Korea enacted a new Disaster Management Law which focused on the effective rescue operations at the response stage, and on improved disaster response systems. This legislation adopts an open-disaster planning method, utilizing the fire department at the response stage as a key organization, and establishing the Task Forces (119 Central Rescue Corps) consisting of rescue specialists with advanced equipment. Another feature of the Safety Committee belonging to the Prime Minister to eliminate the causes of disasters by reinforcing the function of disaster prevention.
KANGWON FIRE SERVICE
Last year alone there were 1,250 fires in Kangwon province which was the cause of 101 deaths and of loss equivalent to 8,884,954,000won. But compared to the 2,041 fires in the whole country last year, Kangwon province was evaluated by the preventive administration to have minimized the loss of damage due to fires.
Also as well as fire, 119 Emergency Rescue was called to the scene 4,244 times last year and saved 3,764 lives, and out of 40,623 incidents rescue team transfered 44,365 emergency patients to the hospital.
So day by day increasing service activities in accidents has given the Kangwon province passionate encouragement from Kangwon citizens. This is all due to the sweat and the extra effort put in by all the members of Tonghae firestation. But without being satisfied with the above mentioned outcomes, Kangwon province concentrates it's efforts to previously preventing all sorts of accidents or fires. Even if a fire breaks out, we are considering plans to minimize injuries and loss in many directions, especially concentrating on public education and information to wipe out at first hand the insensibility of safety consciousness of citizens. Like an old proverb : " there is always something left when a burglar visits you. But when water or fire visits, it removes without exception", the best policy is to prevent accidents in advance.
Through the East sea with its unlimited possibilities and as a central city of pan-pacific epoch, small-sized Kangwon Fire Department in Kangwon province thrives toward hardening the foothold for a better future, building a bridge across the East sea to expand a dream to the world. Kangwon Fire Department is playing a great role as the breakwater of citizens, keeping watch during the whole day, being awake through the night, to make a clean environment and beautiful city to hand down our descendants and to build "the safest city in the world" free from various disaster and misfortunate accidents.