[Opinion] "2022, For a Safer Gwangju and a Happier Gwangju"

Concerned Person Gwangju Metropolitan City Fire Safety Headquarters Chief

The year 2021, the Year of the Ox (辛丑年), is a year filled with many regrets. The nationwide dream of overcoming COVID-19 and soaring to new heights was not realized.

Even at the end of the year, who could have imagined that instead of removing masks, we would have to receive a third booster shot ahead of the implementation of the vaccine pass?

It is certain that 2021 will be remembered as a tumultuous year in the history of Gwangju Fire Department. There were casualties in the February house fire in Juwol-dong, the April house collapse in Gaerim-dong, and the June collapse at the Hakdong reconstruction site. Several fires (April LPG filling station in Suwan-dong, June factory in Pyeong-dong, November warehouse in Docheon-dong) caused significant property damage due to their intensity.

Besides these, Gwangju Fire Department was alongside citizens at 782 fire scenes, 6,502 rescue sites, and 58,400 ambulance transports.

Among the 39,758 patients transported by ambulance were 1,569 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Ambulance crews, wearing multiple layers of protective suits in the heat, often returned exhausted after COVID-related transports. Nevertheless, they could not stop the spread of this infectious disease.

For firefighters, the pain of not being able to save one person weighs far heavier than the memory of saving ten citizens.

This feeling is no different whether one is a chief or a rookie. At every scene where casualties occurred or fires broke out, they habitually seek answers on how to be safer. Through such lessons learned the hard way, Gwangju Fire Department set two major goals for 2022.

First, to become a fire department closer to the citizens. In addition to the 24 safety centers under the Gwangju Fire Safety Headquarters, three more safety centers?Geon-guk 119 Safety Center (Buk-gu), Daechon 119 Safety Center (Nam-gu), and Bitgreen 119 Safety Center (Gwangsan-gu)?will be established to build an airtight safety network and shorten the golden time.

To resolve citizens’ inconveniences as quickly as possible, an emergency vehicle signal control system and an emergency vehicle entry and exit system will be introduced and operated.

Second, to drastically reduce the number of deaths from house and apartment fires. To this end, the city will invest 1.2 billion KRW to supply residential fire safety equipment to approximately 15,400 households and support the installation of 1,000 emergency automatic door openers on old apartment rooftop access doors. Additionally, a 70-meter high ladder truck will be deployed and operated to respond to fires in high-rise apartments and officetels.

In 2022, the Year of the Black Tiger (壬寅年), the Gwangju Fire Safety Headquarters will reorganize its personnel and equipment and start vigorously. About 3,000 firefighters (fire officers and volunteer firefighters) will confront various disasters to make Gwangju safer and happier.

Already, whispers of “Safe Gwangju! We are happy!” seem to be heard here and there.

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