Jinju City Wins 'Best Excellence' at 2025 Wildfire Ground Suppression Competition

First to Achieve a Three-Minute Record in Competition History
Outstanding First-Place Finish Draws Attention

Jinju City in South Gyeongsang Province announced on the 18th that it had won the 'Best Excellence' award with an overwhelming first-place record at the 2025 Wildfire Ground Suppression Competition, held at the Shinsoryang Sports Park area in Hapcheon County.

This competition was hosted by South Gyeongsang Province and organized by the Korea Wildfire Prevention Technology Association's South Gyeongsang Branch. A total of 18 cities and counties from across the province participated, each forming a ground suppression team consisting of 11 wildfire prevention and suppression specialists and one public official responsible for wildfire management.

Group photo of Jinju City, the 'Best Excellence' award-winning team at the 2025 Wildfire Ground Suppression Competition.

The competition simulated real wildfire scenarios, requiring teams to install mechanized wildfire suppression systems and portable water tanks in preparation for restricted water supply situations and to measure the time taken to fill the tanks.

Jinju City laid out suppression hoses over a distance of 450 meters from the fire engine and used pumps to fill two portable water tanks with a capacity of 545 liters each. As a result, Jinju achieved a record time in the three-minute range-the fastest since the competition began in 2013-and ranked first among the 18 participating teams.

This achievement is attributed to Jinju City's deployment of the 'Wildfire Prevention and Suppression Team' on-site since October, as well as continuous ground suppression training and drills at the Wolasan Wildfire Response Center and Namgang Waryong District sports facilities. These efforts have led to a well-prepared initial suppression posture and an established wildfire response system. The city has also seen significant improvements in the speed of initial response to reports of burning activities near forest areas.

A city official stated, "In this competition, suppression team members and forestry officials from Uiryeong County, Sancheong County, and other areas in South Gyeongsang Province engaged in healthy competition, resulting in reduced initial response times. In the event of large-scale wildfires in spring or wildfires occurring at the borders of adjacent cities and counties, we hope that not only wildfire suppression helicopters but also ground suppression teams will cooperate for a joint response, thereby minimizing wildfire damage throughout South Gyeongsang Province."

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