By Shin Yeol-woo
There is a slogan for firefighting in Korea that says: "Fire alarms are the sound of life." This shows the importance of notifying as many people as possible when a fire breaks out so they can evacuate quickly. They are called the sound of life because it is possible to save lives by evacuating when the fire alarm rings.
Prior to the 1980s, Korea's firefighting service focused on two main PR points. One was "Call 119 to report fires" and the other was "A fire extinguisher in each home." The purpose was to have people report fires to the fire station quickly and put out the fire using a fire extinguisher at home.
But recently, another top priority instruction was added: telling citizens to "evacuate first when there is a fire." It has become easier to report fires now as everyone has mobile phones, and the instruction aims at preventing loss of life due to delayed evacuation resulting from trying to extinguish fires.
In particular, buildings today have become much larger and there has also been an increase of multiuse facilities. Another factor that threatens safety is construction materials that generate large quantities of toxic gases when on fire. That is why fire safety is determined on how well such risk factors can be managed and controlled.
Fires involve a number of variables including climate, urban environment and lifestyle, and therefore, it is difficult to compare fire safety levels of different countries just with statistical numbers. But generally, most people agree on evaluating a country's fire safety level based on the number of fires and deaths caused by them.
This means that if fires break out frequently, there are problems with fire prevention. And many casualties caused by fires can mean problems with firefighting and rescue operations. Negligence in fire prevention will lead to more frequent fires and poor firefighting measures can increase the number of deaths because of the inability to put out the fire early on or being unable to rescue people.
The fire safety of each country can be estimated using the World Fire Statistics (2020) announced by the International Association of Fire and Rescue Services. The fire statistics of OECD countries for five years from 2014 to 2018 are as follows.
The number of annual fires per 100,000 people ranged from three in one country to 57 in another, up to a 20-fold gap. Also, 0.23 per 100,000 people died from fires in one country while the average figure was 1.32 in another, about a six-fold difference.
Based on these statistics, Korea is one of the countries with high fire safety levels. The number of fires per 100,000 people was eight, among the lowest numbers in the OECD member countries. The number of deaths caused by fires per 100,000 people was approximately 0.7, which is lower than the OECD average of 1.2.
But Korea's firefighting service cannot be satisfied with this statistical superiority. In order to have the best fire safety, fire-related deaths must be lowered to 0.5 people per 100,000.
The theme of this year's "Firefighting Services Day" event that President Moon Jae-in attended was "Do your best to save lives, but make sure that you come back alive yourselves." He said that this was an order. It is the mission of firefighters to protect the safety of citizens. The nation's firefighting service will concentrate on this.
And we will share Korea's successful firefighting policies established and enacted through preemptive analysis and predictions with the entire world. There is no prerequisite in the mission of saving lives. This is the rule of Korea's firefighting service.
Shin Yeol-woo is the commissioner of National Fire Agency.
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Prior to the 1980s, Korea's firefighting service focused on two main PR points. One was "Call 119 to report fires" and the other was "A fire extinguisher in each home." The purpose was to have people report fires to the fire station quickly and put out the fire using a fire extinguisher at home.
But recently, another top priority instruction was added: telling citizens to "evacuate first when there is a fire." It has become easier to report fires now as everyone has mobile phones, and the instruction aims at preventing loss of life due to delayed evacuation resulting from trying to extinguish fires.
In particular, buildings today have become much larger and there has also been an increase of multiuse facilities. Another factor that threatens safety is construction materials that generate large quantities of toxic gases when on fire. That is why fire safety is determined on how well such risk factors can be managed and controlled.
Fires involve a number of variables including climate, urban environment and lifestyle, and therefore, it is difficult to compare fire safety levels of different countries just with statistical numbers. But generally, most people agree on evaluating a country's fire safety level based on the number of fires and deaths caused by them.
This means that if fires break out frequently, there are problems with fire prevention. And many casualties caused by fires can mean problems with firefighting and rescue operations. Negligence in fire prevention will lead to more frequent fires and poor firefighting measures can increase the number of deaths because of the inability to put out the fire early on or being unable to rescue people.
The fire safety of each country can be estimated using the World Fire Statistics (2020) announced by the International Association of Fire and Rescue Services. The fire statistics of OECD countries for five years from 2014 to 2018 are as follows.
The number of annual fires per 100,000 people ranged from three in one country to 57 in another, up to a 20-fold gap. Also, 0.23 per 100,000 people died from fires in one country while the average figure was 1.32 in another, about a six-fold difference.
Based on these statistics, Korea is one of the countries with high fire safety levels. The number of fires per 100,000 people was eight, among the lowest numbers in the OECD member countries. The number of deaths caused by fires per 100,000 people was approximately 0.7, which is lower than the OECD average of 1.2.
But Korea's firefighting service cannot be satisfied with this statistical superiority. In order to have the best fire safety, fire-related deaths must be lowered to 0.5 people per 100,000.
The theme of this year's "Firefighting Services Day" event that President Moon Jae-in attended was "Do your best to save lives, but make sure that you come back alive yourselves." He said that this was an order. It is the mission of firefighters to protect the safety of citizens. The nation's firefighting service will concentrate on this.
And we will share Korea's successful firefighting policies established and enacted through preemptive analysis and predictions with the entire world. There is no prerequisite in the mission of saving lives. This is the rule of Korea's firefighting service.
Shin Yeol-woo is the commissioner of National Fire Agency.
