'YugahyuJik' Firefighter Who Extinguished Underpass Fire in 10 Minutes

Five-Car Pileup Causes Vehicle Fire
Quick Extinguishing with Fire Extinguisher on Roadside

A firefighter on parental leave quickly extinguished a fire at a multi-vehicle collision site in an underpass before the fire truck even arrived, preventing major damage.

On the 7th, the Gyeonggi-do Fire and Disaster Headquarters announced that at 8:08 a.m. that day, a collision involving five passenger cars occurred at the Seryu Underpass in Gwonseon-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do. As a result of the accident, flames erupted from the engine compartment of the third vehicle, causing a fire. At that time, Kim Gwang-woon, a 119 rescue team leader from Songtan Fire Station who was in the fourth vehicle, immediately took out a fire extinguisher from the car. However, Kim soon realized that the fire extinguisher was crushed and unusable due to the impact of the accident, so he quickly got out of the vehicle. Then, he grabbed three fire extinguishers installed inside the underpass and ran to the burning vehicle to put out the fire.

On the morning of the 7th, Fire Captain Kim Kwang-woon, the 119 Rescue Team Leader of Songtan Fire Station, is extinguishing a fire caused by a collision accident at Seryu Underpass in Gwonseon-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi Province.
[Photo by Gyeonggi-do Fire & Disaster Headquarters, Yonhap News]

Since the accident occurred in an underpass, it could have escalated into a major disaster, but thanks to Kim’s quick response, the fire was extinguished within about 10 minutes. However, two more vehicles collided afterward, increasing the total number of damaged vehicles to seven. Fortunately, there were no casualties. The fire authorities, upon receiving the report, dispatched about 70 firefighters and 20 pieces of equipment to the scene immediately, but the fire was already extinguished upon arrival. After handling the accident, the fire authorities declared the situation over at 8:46 a.m.

The fire authorities stated that Kim said, "I just did what I was supposed to do," and added, "Any firefighter would have acted the same way. It is fortunate that it did not lead to casualties." Kim Gwang-woon, who entered the fire service in 2017 through the executive candidate public recruitment, has been leading firefighting activities, receiving commendations such as the 2019 Hwaseong Fire Station Chief’s Award and the Gyeonggi Province Governor’s Award. He has been on parental leave since May.

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