The National Fire Agency immediately activated the Central Emergency Rescue Control Headquarters in response to the fire at the Daejeon National Intelligence Resources Management Institute (NIRM), appointing Kim Seungryong, Acting Commissioner of the National Fire Agency, as the head of the control headquarters. The emergency rescue control headquarters is a temporary organization established to oversee and coordinate emergency rescue operations when disasters occur.
According to the National Fire Agency on September 27, the head of the control headquarters is personally commanding operations at the fire site. Immediately after the fire broke out, the agency convened all executives at the director level and above for an emergency meeting to gather information by sector and discuss effective response strategies.
On the 26th, Kim Seungryong, Acting Commissioner of the National Fire Agency, presided over a countermeasure meeting at the fire site of the National Intelligence Resources Management Institute. Photo by National Fire Agency
Earlier, at around 8:20 p.m. on the previous day, a fire broke out in the computer room of the Daejeon NIRM. About 10 hours later, at approximately 6:30 a.m. on this day, the initial suppression was completed. The fire reportedly started from one battery, whose power had been disconnected, during work to relocate uninterruptible power supply batteries to the basement.
As a result of this fire, one person suffered minor burns, and it was confirmed that most of the 384 lithium batteries on the fifth floor were completely destroyed. In addition, the fire caused 647 work systems located at the Daejeon headquarters to cease operation, resulting in large-scale service disruptions such as for post offices and mobile identification services.
Currently, fire authorities are focusing on ventilation and cooling operations to inspect the interior of the fifth-floor computer room where the fire occurred. Together with NIRM experts, they are also separating lithium-ion batteries and moving them to a temporary firefighting water tank set up outside the building for cooling. The National Fire Agency stated that, as a result, it is expected to take some time before the fire is fully extinguished.
Acting Commissioner Kim stated, "We will focus all our capabilities on minimizing damage to national intelligence resources, ensuring rapid recovery, and extinguishing any remaining fires in order to minimize public inconvenience and restore normal operations as quickly as possible."
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