Seoul Fire Department: "116 Initial Extinguishments with 'Visible Fire Extinguishers'... Prevented 1.4 Billion Won in Damage"

798 Old Fire Extinguisher Boxes Replaced with New Models in the First Half of This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the afternoon of the 24th of last month, a fire broke out in a multi-family house in Guro-gu, Seoul, but a person involved used a ‘visible fire extinguisher’ to extinguish the fire in its early stages, preventing what could have been a major disaster. The person had been paying close attention to the location of the ‘visible fire extinguisher’ and was able to put out the fire early on.

According to Seoul City on the 18th, the Fire and Disaster Headquarters replaced 798 old fire extinguisher boxes with a budget of 130 million won in the first half of this year, and there were 116 cases where citizens directly extinguished fires using the ‘visible fire extinguisher.’ The amount of damage mitigated was also recorded at 1.4 billion won.

Since 2015, Seoul City has been introducing ‘visible fire extinguishers’ and continuously installing them in densely populated highland residential areas, shantytowns, and traditional markets. The total number installed so far has reached 21,485. The total amount of fire damage mitigated is estimated at 26.3 billion won, showing that approximately 32 million won in fire damage was reduced per fire extinguished. Compared to the total cost of 4.4 billion won invested in installing the ‘visible fire extinguishers,’ this is about six times the amount.

Additionally, the use of fire extinguishers has been increasing every year. In particular, the ‘street-type visible fire extinguisher,’ installed since 2019 to extinguish fires occurring on streets such as in cars and street vendors, has played a significant role in these achievements. Choi Tae-young, head of the Seoul Fire and Disaster Headquarters, said, “We will continue to focus on installing visible fire extinguishers in single-person households and areas densely populated with old houses in line with the city administration’s philosophy of ‘walking with the vulnerable’ to make Seoul a safer city.”

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