Fire in Suwon Elementary School Cafeteria Extinguished in 20 Minutes Thanks to Fire Drill

A fire broke out in an elementary school cafeteria, but thanks to prior fire drills, it was extinguished within about 20 minutes.

The Suwon Southern Fire Station in Gyeonggi deployed 14 vehicles and 35 personnel to extinguish the fire that occurred around 8:50 a.m. on the 2nd in the cafeteria of A Elementary School in its jurisdiction, successfully putting out the fire in about 20 minutes.

When the fire broke out, approximately 900 people, including 840 students and about 80 faculty members, calmly evacuated as they had practiced in the drill last October, resulting in no casualties.

Firefighters are extinguishing a fire in the cafeteria of A Elementary School in Suwon. Photo by Suwon Nambu Fire Station

This school conducted a joint fire drill with the fire station on October 23rd. At that time, the Suwon Southern Fire Station carried out notification drills, evacuation drills, and fire extinguishing drills with a total of 935 participants, including faculty and students.

Go Young-joo, chief of the Suwon Southern Fire Station, said, "The school where the fire occurred had conducted a joint public institution drill last October," adding, "The teachers calmly evacuated the students according to their respective duties, so there was no significant damage."

Meanwhile, the fire authorities are investigating the exact cause and extent of the damage, as the fire is believed to have started from the air purifier in the cafeteria.