"Insurance Companies Should Bear Firefighting Resource Costs If Profiting from Fire Services: Gyeonggi Fire Department"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] A study has found that if insurance companies generate savings in insurance premiums through fire services, they should bear part of the fire service funding. In some advanced countries such as Australia, insurance companies bear the cost of fire service funding.

According to the policy issue report "Analysis of Socioeconomic Effects from Firefighting Service," published for the first time nationwide by the Gyeonggi Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters commissioned to the Korea Institute of Local Administration, the average annual number of fires in the province from 2016 to 2018 was 9,859 cases. The estimated amount of loss prevention due to the prompt fire suppression by fire agencies was 13.3474 trillion KRW. During the same period, the average operating expenses for 170 119 Safety Centers in the province over three years was 277.6 billion KRW.

Accordingly, the issue report explained that the loss prevention effect from fire suppression activities is estimated to be 48 times the operating expenses of the 119 Safety Centers.

Analyzing rescue and emergency medical services in the same way, the average loss prevention amount from Gyeonggi Province fire activities was 17.012 trillion KRW, and the social benefits of Gyeonggi fire activities were estimated to be 42 times the costs.

The issue report stated that the social benefits from firefighting activities occur not only in the public sector but also in the private sector, and especially insurance companies, which must pay insurance claims for fires and fatal accidents, become beneficiaries of economic benefits.

Therefore, the issue report suggested that a plan should be considered for insurance companies to bear part of the funding necessary for firefighting activities. It also introduced the case of New South Wales in Australia, where insurance companies bear the fire service funding.

The issue report additionally proposed securing firefighting activity funds through a polluter-pays system, similar to metropolitan transportation facility charges and environmental improvement charges.

Jung Chan-young, head of the Life Safety Team at the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters, explained, "It is very meaningful that an analysis result has come out for the first time nationwide that insurance premium savings generated by providing fire services can be utilized as fire service funding."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.