Three officials from the South Gyeongsang Provincial Government, who were responsible for safety management at the time of a major wildfire in Sancheong-gun last March in which nine wildfire suppression personnel were killed or injured, have been handed over to the prosecution.
The Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency announced on the 11th that it had booked four people from the ground suppression unit of the integrated command headquarters at the wildfire site of the South Gyeongsang Provincial Government, including a supervisor, a team leader, and a working-level official, on charges of occupational negligence resulting in death and injury, and had referred three of them to the prosecution without detention.
One person who had been temporarily assigned to the ground suppression unit for work support immediately before the accident was cleared without referral.
A firefighter is extinguishing flames at a wildfire site in Sicheon-myeon, Sancheong-gun, Gyeongnam. Photo provided by Korea Forest Service
According to the police, they are suspected of having forced the victims into the field during the wildfire in Sicheon-myeon, Sancheong-gun in March last year without carefully reviewing on-site weather information and wildfire spread information, and without providing any safety training or conducting equipment inspections.
The police explained that, under the headquarters’ operating manual, the three officials should have checked matters such as prohibiting the deployment of suppression personnel in high-risk areas, establishing and operating a reliable communications network, conducting safety training, and securing safety gear. Nevertheless, they deployed the suppression personnel to dangerous locations while the identification of risk factors such as the wildfire situation, weather conditions, and access conditions including access roads was still insufficient.
The police also determined that they failed to properly establish and maintain a smooth communication system between the command headquarters and the suppression personnel, which prevented the transmission of information on risk factors, and that they did not provide sufficient education on risk factors and safety rules before deployment, nor did they adequately inspect the equipment and safety gear of the suppression personnel.
The police concluded that the three referred officials bear criminal responsibility for the loss of life and bodily injuries suffered by the victims, because they had sufficiently foreseen the danger of the wildfire spreading based on weather information predicting strong winds, yet still violated the regulations prohibiting deployment to high-risk areas and vaguely pushed ahead with sending the victims into the field.
A firefighter is extinguishing a wildfire in Sicheon-myeon, Sancheong-gun, Gyeongnam. Photo by Korea Forest Service.
Previously, at around 3:20 p.m. on March 21 last year, a fire broke out on a hillside in Sicheon-myeon, Sancheong-gun and spread to Hadong-gun and Jirisan National Park.
The fire was brought under control only at around 1:00 p.m. on the 30th, 10 days after it started, but approximately 1,858 hectares of forest, equivalent to 2,602 soccer fields, were burned, and 28 houses, 2 factories, 2 religious facilities, and 84 facilities including cultural assets were reduced to ashes.
In the process, on March 22, the second day after the wildfire started, four people, including three wildfire suppression personnel from Changnyeong-gun and an accompanying government official, were isolated by the flames and killed while carrying out suppression work at the site, and five others were injured.
A police official said, "If you focus only on carrying out operations quickly and neglect to review the safety of personnel deployed in the suppression process, there is a high risk of irreversible loss of life and physical harm to individuals," adding, "Commanders must thoroughly check the safety of suppression personnel in advance and work to improve poor systems in order to prevent such damage."
Along with this, the police notified relevant agencies of improvement measures such as designating a dedicated wildfire department and simplifying the command structure to enhance expertise in wildfire response, upgrading disaster-response communication networks and maintaining efficient communication systems, and strengthening regulations on essential portable safety equipment, including flame-retardant uniforms and flame-retardant tents.
The South Gyeongsang Provincial Government issued a statement in response to the investigation results, saying, "If officials in charge are criminally punished for accidents that occur at suppression sites, they will have no choice but to refrain from deploying personnel or respond passively," and expressed concern that "the damage caused by the spread of wildfires and delays in suppression due to passive response will ultimately be borne by the public."
It went on to say, "This accident was mainly caused by irresistible natural disasters such as gusts of wind and flying sparks," and added, "It is necessary to thoroughly analyze the cause of the accident and improve systems and strengthen policy support at the disaster-response system level so that similar cases do not occur again."
It further stated, "Wildfire suppression work is a disaster-response activity and should be excluded from the scope of criminal punishment and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act," and added, "Recognizing the criminal responsibility of public officials is unfair, so any determination of negligence must be made with great caution."
The labor union of public officials at the South Gyeongsang Provincial Government also said, "Imposing responsibility in this way is likely to lead to avoidance of disaster-related work in the civil service in the future," and added, "Rather than holding public officials with no particular fault accountable, the system and procedures should be improved so that such sacrifices are not repeated."
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