<산림청, Wildfire Disaster Special Firefighting Unit 'Elite Personnel Development and Workforce Expansion'>

At the time of the wildfire occurrence in Ingum-ri, Pungcheon-myeon, Andong this year, a wildfire disaster special firefighting team member is extinguishing the wildfire on site. Provided by the Korea Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service is realizing the elite training and personnel expansion of the Sanbul Jaenan Special Firefighting Unit.

On the 19th, the Korea Forest Service announced that it will establish and enforce a legal basis (Article 29-2) concerning the composition and operation of the Sanbul Jaenan Special Firefighting Unit in the Enforcement Decree of the Forest Protection Act.

The provision on the composition and operation of the Sanbul Jaenan Special Firefighting Unit was newly established to respond quickly and efficiently to year-round and large-scale forest fire disasters caused by recent climate change.

Through this, the Korea Forest Service will expand the current 330 members of the Sanbul Jaenan Special Firefighting Unit to 435 members. In particular, among the additional personnel, 160 will be converted to public service positions, recruiting relatively young personnel with an average age of 38 to foster and utilize them as elite members equipped with physical strength and expertise.

The activities of the Sanbul Jaenan Special Firefighting Unit were prominent during the Goseong wildfire in May. At that time, the unit was intensively deployed to the fire front in mountainous areas and at night when access to the site was difficult, extinguishing about 60% of the fire before firefighting helicopters were deployed.

Thanks to this, the damage area of the Goseong wildfire this year (123 hectares) was minimized to about one-tenth compared to the wildfire damage scale (1,267 hectares) that occurred in the same area (Goseong) last year.

However, behind this, the Sanbul Jaenan Special Firefighting Unit had been employed under short-term contracts (10 months) as part of the forest disaster job project, resulting in frequent personnel changes and limitations in mastering firefighting skills. Additionally, the high employment rate of those aged 50 and over was also a disadvantageous condition.

Accordingly, the Korea Forest Service plans to improve the efficiency of firefighting activities by establishing a legal basis for the composition and operation of the Sanbul Jaenan Special Firefighting Unit, ensuring stable employment and recruiting younger personnel.

The Sanbul Jaenan Special Firefighting Unit is usually composed of about 12 members per team and performs forest fire prevention and firefighting missions at sites where there is a risk of large-scale wildfire spread, in areas difficult to access, and outside their jurisdiction.

Ko Rak-sam, head of the Forest Fire Prevention Division at the Korea Forest Service, said, “We expect that establishing a legal basis for the composition and operation of the Sanbul Jaenan Special Firefighting Unit will contribute to strengthening forest fire response readiness,” adding, “The Korea Forest Service will focus on maintaining a constant dispatch readiness to ensure public safety and minimize forest fire damage by swiftly extinguishing fires whenever and wherever they occur.”

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