By Jane Han
Staff Reporter

Local firemen can soon avoid jumping into dangerous blazes, as two robotic firefighters have been newly invented to be deployed into the center of a blazing inferno.

The first two automated, wheeled robots will be located in fire stations in Daegu, south of Seoul, for a test run starting today, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

The trial period will run through November with 45 firehouses participating.

Additional nationwide deployment will be considered after reviewing the robots' performance at the end of this year, ministry officials said.

"The essential purpose of the new technology is to help save human firefighters' lives," said a ministry spokesman, who explained that the two locally developed robots have been designed to prevent them from being exposed to dangerous situations.

The so-called "Fire Spy Robot," developed by Hoya Robot, measures 12.5 centimeters in diameter and weighs 2 kilograms. It can be easily maneuvered into a blaze to check what is happening through a camera.

The other, bigger vehicle, invented by DRB Fatec, which is 88 centimeters tall and 85 centimeters wide, was developed for larger fires.

"The robot can be sent into huge outbreaks with tough accessibility for an extended period of time," said an official of DRB Fatec. The device can withstand temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius for more than one hour.

He explained that developers kept in mind the 2003 Daegu subway fire and 2008 Icheon blaze, which together claimed hundreds of lives, when inventing the robot.

jhan@koreatimes.co.kr