Jeonnam Fire Department Intensifies Efforts to Combat Forest Fires and Drought Response

Director Hong Young-geun Chairs Emergency Video Conference

Hong Young-geun, head of the Jeonnam Fire Headquarters, strongly instructed the establishment of countermeasures for forest (wildfire and grassfire) fires and drought response.

According to the Jeonnam Fire Headquarters on the 6th, Director Hong presided over an emergency video conference in the afternoon to prepare countermeasures for wildfire and drought response.

The meeting was attended by more than 65 people, including department and team leaders of the headquarters and 20 fire station chiefs in the province.

The meeting was held in response to the recent prolonged drought, which increased concerns about large-scale wildfires, following the presidential directive on wildfire prevention and the Korea Fire Agency's issuance of the national crisis alert level 'Warning' for wildfire disasters.

In the Jeonnam region, forest fires and other wildland fires have occurred consecutively recently. As of the end of last month, there were 120 wildland fires, and among the five fire-related deaths during the same period, four were caused by wildland fires.

The Jeonnam Fire Headquarters decided to put all efforts into strengthening patrols, guidance, and publicity activities to prevent fires, as fires caused by carelessness such as burning garbage and fields have led to large-scale wildfires and casualties.

In addition, to prevent wildfires from spreading into large-scale fires, they agreed to promptly activate a cooperative system with the Korea Forest Service and city/county forestry departments and to mobilize all available firefighting resources to ensure early fire suppression.

In particular, they will actively carry out activities with about 11,000 volunteer firefighters and village safety keepers.

They also discussed measures to secure firefighting water supply due to drought, including the management of natural and artificial reservoirs and securing firefighting water in restricted water supply areas such as island regions.

Director Hong Young-geun said, "I ask for the active participation and interest of all residents to prevent wildfires and other forest fires so that we do not lose the precious living spaces of our people due to a small spark."