Gov't to move all vehicles that interfere with emergency responses

By Kim Hyun-bin

The National Fire Agency (NFA) announced Sunday that it will move all vehicles, parked legally or illegally, if they impede firefighters from responding to fires and other emergencies.

Under a revision to the Framework Act on Fire Services, which will go into effect June 27, all vehicles obstructing an emergency fire response will be swiftly moved and no compensation will be given for damages to illegally parked vehicles.

Firefighters will be exempted from paying for damage to vehicles and other property during emergency responses.

Damage to vehicles that are lawfully parked could be compensated for by municipal governments, not firefighters.

“The revision includes compensation for damage to vehicles that were moved during a fire emergency,” said the NFA

The current act states that any objects including automobiles can be removed during an emergency fire response and compensation will be given for vehicles damaged during the process. However, the agency said it was difficult to enforce the act as it did not specify the qualifications and process for compensation.

Only eight cities and local governments have implemented the compensation measures, including Seoul and Busan, and Gyeonggi Province.

To make matters worse, only a few districts have been operating a compensation committee, which reviews if damages qualify.

Due to the lack of enforcement, some firefighters had to pay for damages out of their own pocket.

However, the newly revised regulation makes it mandatory for the NFA or the local governments to compensate for damages to legally parked cars during an emergency fire response.

Any damage to illegally parked vehicles in the process of removal is not subject to compensation.

The revision comes after the deadly fire at the Duson Sporium in Jecheon, Dec. 21, which killed 29 and injured 36 people.

The fire department was strongly criticized for its late response to the fire.

The NFA said one of the major delays was due to removing illegally parked vehicles around the building.

They added that roughly two dozen vehicles were illegally parked in the narrow area and fire trucks had to make a detour of 500 meters to reach the designated site.

In additional preventive measures, the agency and local governments are looking into setting up more CCTV’s in populated areas.

It also plans to increase patrols and enhance cooperation with local towing services to promptly respond to future emergency situations.