"If an Oil Tank Explodes in Ulsan" ... National-Level Emergency Rescue Comprehensive Drill on the 19th

33 Public and Private Organizations and Over 1,500 Participants Conduct Large-Scale Complex Disaster Response Drill

Fire suppression training assuming a fire in an outdoor hazardous materials storage tank

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The National Fire Agency announced that on the 19th, it will conduct a "national-level comprehensive emergency rescue drill" at Ulsan Sebang New Port Pier, simulating a large oil tank explosion scenario, using a dual system connecting video between the field and the command center.

Co-hosted by the National Fire Agency and Ulsan Metropolitan City, the drill will involve over 1,500 personnel from 33 organizations including the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the National Police Agency, the Ministry of Environment, and the Korea Forest Service. More than 380 pieces of equipment, including six helicopters, will be deployed. The drill scenario assumes an explosion of an oil tank within the Ulsan National Industrial Complex causing more than 50 casualties, with the fire spreading to adjacent tanks and chemical transport vessels docked at the pier.

This is the third drill since the establishment of the National Fire Agency. The first drill (2018) in Cheongju, Chungbuk, focused on earthquakes and hazardous chemical leaks, and the second drill (2019) in Gwangju simulated an airplane crash. Both were conducted entirely on-site on the day of the incident. This year, due to COVID-19 prevention measures, 80% of the initial response and other tasks will be pre-recorded by each agency, while 20%, including the National Fire Agency chief’s command, will be conducted in real-time via video connection.

Accordingly, while fire departments and related agencies from other cities and provinces who did not participate in previous drills learned by watching edited videos afterward, this year all city and provincial fire departments as well as other related agencies will be able to participate by watching the on-site command and response situations in real-time.

The drill will proceed in four stages: Stage 1 - activation of Ulsan Metropolitan City Emergency Rescue Control Group; Stage 2 - full activation of the Central Emergency Rescue Control Group; Stage 3 - full-scale national emergency rescue response; and Stage 4 - recovery and restoration. Through this, the nationwide fire mobilization system, disaster site response capabilities, and support status of related public and private agencies will be verified to ensure they operate quickly and accurately in the event of an actual disaster.

Shin Yeol-woo, head of the National Fire Agency, said, "To prevent command gaps when moving to the site after the occurrence of disaster response stages 2 to 3, it is important to operate a system that allows situational awareness and command via video during transit." He added, "We also plan to conduct drills linking on-site command and video command to enable parallel command in case disasters of stage 2 or higher occur simultaneously in two or more cities or provinces."

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