Fire Agency and Gyeongnam Province to Distribute Fire Alarms to 140,000 Vulnerable Households by Next Year

A firefighter from the Gyeongnam Provincial Fire Headquarters is visiting the Yongpo Village Hall in Miryang to provide fire alarm experience training to the elderly.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Fire Agency and Gyeongsangnam-do announced on the 7th that they will distribute fire alarms and fire extinguishers to 140,000 vulnerable households in the province.

The Gyeongnam Fire Headquarters applied for the "Distribution of Fire Safety Equipment for Vulnerable Households" project under the 2021 Lottery Fund by the Lottery Commission under the Ministry of Economy and Finance in February and secured 7.91 billion KRW in national funding. While lottery fund budgets have previously been used to establish fire safety facilities in underdeveloped areas, this is the first nationwide budget specifically for distributing fire safety equipment to vulnerable households.

With this budget secured, Gyeongsangnam-do plans to expand the target vulnerable groups beyond the existing basic livelihood security recipients and near-poverty groups to include people with disabilities, elderly living alone, single-parent families, and multicultural families. Currently, about 50% of vulnerable households have installed residential fire safety equipment, but by next year, the province aims to expand installation to all vulnerable households.

Since 2012, there have been a total of 77 fire-related deaths in residential fires in Gyeongsangnam-do over the past nine years, of which 40 (51.9%) were people aged 70 or older. The Fire Headquarters explains that fire alarms, which can detect fires, and fire extinguishers, used for initial fire suppression, are essential in homes where elderly people live alone.

Since 2008, before the installation of residential fire safety equipment became mandatory, the Gyeongnam Fire Headquarters has been distributing residential fire safety equipment free of charge to about 140,000 vulnerable households, including basic livelihood security recipients, through provincial (city and county) budgets and social contribution projects.

Shin Yeol-woo, Commissioner of the Fire Agency, said, "By 2025, Korea will become a super-aged society, and especially in provincial areas, the degree of aging is more severe, so the central government is also focusing on promoting the distribution of fire alarms." He added, "I hope the case of Gyeongsangnam-do will be expanded nationwide."

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