Stronger Against Disasters! ... 'Pohang-style Complex Safe Korea Drill' Protects Citizens' Lives

Pohang City conducted a large-scale "Pohang-style Safe Korea Drill" to protect the lives of citizens from disasters.

On the 25th, Pohang City conducted the "Safe Korea Drill" at Ocheon Kyunghee Nursing Hospital, simulating a disaster situation where a fire broke out due to an earthquake.

This year, the city achieved zero casualties from disasters through proactive resident evacuation and advanced active response during typhoons and monsoon seasons. With this drill, the city aims to prepare in advance for disaster-related casualties during the winter and next year.

The drill conducted on the 25th simulated a disaster situation where a fire broke out due to an earthquake at Ocheon Kyunghee Nursing Hospital. At the Disaster Safety Situation Room, a situation assessment meeting and emergency response discussion training were held. On-site, a comprehensive drill was conducted to respond according to the stages of situation dissemination, life rescue, fire suppression, damage recovery, and restoration.

To ensure rapid and systematic disaster response, this drill involved 13 city collaboration departments along with related organizations and safety groups such as the Southern Fire Station, Southern Police Station, Marine Corps, Korea Gas Safety Corporation, Korea Electric Power Corporation, Korean Red Cross, KT, Volunteer Fire Brigade, and Ocheon Autonomous Disaster Prevention Group.

This year’s Safe Korea Drill was held as a complex drill assuming disaster situations with high risk of casualties such as radiation disaster prevention, earthquake fires, urban flooding, and river collapse. The focus was on preventing casualties in advance through rapid evacuation and initial response.

In particular, the drill analyzed the characteristics of disaster risk areas by region and identified vulnerable groups in advance, conducting urgent evacuation to prepared shelters. It also carried out realistic drills for life rescue in urgent situations through organic cooperation with related organizations and safety groups.

Since this Safe Korea Drill is being fully resumed after three years, the city designed a Pohang-style drill essential to the region. On the 24th, a radiation disaster prevention resident evacuation drill was conducted in Janggi-myeon, and on the 25th, an earthquake fire life rescue and response recovery drill was carried out at Ocheon Kyunghee Nursing Hospital.

On the 26th, a drill will be simultaneously conducted across all towns and villages assuming a river collapse situation caused by extreme rainfall such as monsoon or typhoon, focusing on pre-preparation, initial response, and urgent resident evacuation.

To prepare for river collapse, Pohang City designated about 120 buildings of 2 to 3 floors in height as "River Collapse Shelters," installed nameplates, revised ordinances to establish grounds for compensation support, and established a rapid evacuation system for residents.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, "This year, we focused administrative power on protecting citizens' lives from disaster threats by proactively issuing resident evacuation orders and thoroughly controlling risk areas in advance, and fortunately, no casualties occurred. Through this joint drill, we will enhance the disaster response capabilities of civilians, government, and military, build a systematic safety response system, and make every effort to create a safe Pohang for our citizens."

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