Koreans increasingly wary about fire
A firefighter inspects an apartment building damaged by fire in Songpa-gu, southeastern Seoul, Thursday. The fire took 30 minutes to contain and no deaths or injuries were reported. /Yonhap
By Kim Se-jeong
Two recent deadly incidents pushed people to grow more wary of fires.
According to the National Fire Agency, 3,852 incidents occurred in January alone this year, making the daily average 124. These fires took 45 lives.
More than 40,000 fires occurred each year from 2013 to 2017, which amounted to 1,535 deaths and 9,143 injuries _ 40,932 cases in 2013, 42,135 in 2014, 44,435 in 2015, 43,413 in 2016 and 44,175 in 2017.
On Jan. 26, flames engulfed a five-story Sejong Hospital building in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, killing 36 patients, one doctor and two nurses and injuring almost 150. Police are still investigating the cause of the fire.
On Dec. 21, 29 were killed in a fire at a sports facility in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province. Many were found to have died of asphyxiation.
In both incidents, authorities confirmed the building owners failed to equip the buildings with proper anti-fire devices and the buildings were poorly designed, making it difficult for victims to find emergency escapes.
But these tragedies have taught lessons to some people who began acting proactively to protect themselves.
Stores selling fire protection devices showed sales going up dramatically after the Miryang fire.
Online shopping mall TMON said its fire extinguisher sales in January were 1.5 times higher than they were in January a year ago.
Another online shopping mall Wemakeprice also reported sales of portable fire extinguishers and fire detectors in January increased 40 percent compared to the rate the previous year.
People also say they hear fire warning messages more often at crowded places such as malls, movie theaters, restaurants and bookstores.
“I need to be aware because it can happen to me as well,” said a Chungju resident in North Chungcheon Province surnamed Park, 49. He said he now pays more attention to the fire alarms in his apartment building every day. “Of course I pay more attention now.”
Experts viewed these effects from those tragic accidents as positive but it’s not enough. They stress it is time to wage a serious awareness campaign about the risks of fires and fire safety in general.
“Improving hardware is important. But what’s more important is to educate people about fire safety.
The two recent incidents showed people did not have a real sense of safety,” said Lee Joo-ho, who teaches fire service administration at Sehan University in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province. He also recommends people take safety workshops offered by local fire stations and learn safety procedures for disasters. “Safety should be the priority.”