Urgent Need to Improve Environment and Expand Space of '119 Comprehensive Situation Room'... Special Nature of Work Overlooked

Compared to 2014, workforce increased by 46% in 2020 but size and usability decreased
Fire Headquarters 119 Comprehensive Situation Room operates 24 hours... Workers face high fatigue and suffer from post-traumatic stress

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The number of personnel working in 119 Integrated Situation Rooms increased by 46%, from 1,055 in 2014 to 1,537 in 2020, due to the expansion of public safety awareness and improvement in fire service quality. However, the size and usability of the workspace in the situation rooms have not kept pace, revealing an urgent need for environmental improvements and space expansion.

According to the Fire Agency on the 26th, the results of the "119 Integrated Situation Room Space Standardization Research Project" showed that many locations failed to adequately consider the unique nature of situation management tasks. Distances between the situation rooms that receive reports and the conference rooms that command and control situations, as well as the movement paths of the command staff, were inefficient. Additionally, facilities to prepare for infectious disease outbreaks, including respiratory illnesses, were found to be insufficient.

The 119 Integrated Situation Room is where emergency reports requiring fire, rescue, or emergency medical services are received via 119, and disaster information is collected, analyzed, and assessed. All 119 Integrated Situation Rooms nationwide operate 24 hours a day. Consequently, personnel working in these rooms experience accumulated fatigue during night shifts or continuous 24-hour shifts, and suffer emotional labor due to severe verbal abuse or sexual harassment remarks that can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Despite this, there are no personal rest areas or break rooms where employees working 24 hours can eat or drink. The installation rates of mental health stabilization rooms and fitness rooms for PTSD healing and prevention are also low, confirming the need to improve welfare spaces for situation room personnel.

Specifically, the average area per person at desks equipped with 119 report reception counters nationwide was 11.58㎡, which is at the level of general office space per person (7 to 10㎡), indicating a need for additional space.

Since situation room personnel must comprehensively perform tasks such as report reception, dispatch, control, information support, and wireless communication directly at the reception counters, they require equipment such as report reception monitors, Geographic Information System (GIS) terminal monitors, telephones, and microphones, necessitating more space than typical office areas.

The Fire Agency plans to arrange workspaces considering the movement paths of situation personnel and command staff, establish spaces for quarantine and security measures to prepare for infectious disease outbreaks, and secure extra space to handle surges in disaster reports by period and season.

Hwang Gi-seok, head of the 119 Integrated Situation Room, stated, "Using the results of this study, we will prepare common standards for situation rooms nationwide and a three-stage design standard based on workload. Through institutional improvements, we will apply and supplement new standards when remodeling or expanding situation room spaces."

Meanwhile, these results were obtained through a research project conducted from August to December last year by the Fire Agency to improve problems that may arise in the special working environment and to enhance the working environment for efficient situation management. The Fire Agency and researchers visited all situation rooms of fire headquarters nationwide, analyzing blueprints, conducting in-depth interviews and surveys with situation personnel, and comparing with overseas and other institutions' situation rooms to analyze the current status of situation rooms.

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