CALLS TO SECURE MORE FIREFIGHTERS

[Anchor Lead]

The recent devastating fires in the southeastern part of Korea have exposed a severe shortage of professional firefighters at the Korea Forest Service. The tragedy has prompted many to call on local governments to secure professional firefighters to deal with the ever-growing scale of wildfires.

[Pkg]

Special firefighters from the Korea Forest Service deal with forest fires day and night. After large flames on a mountaintop are contained by helicopters, the firefighters descend on ropes to put out the remaining blaze. There are only some 500 special firefighting agents at the Korea Forest Service. They fight forest fires on the frontlines, but they are in short supply.

[Soundbite] Lee Sang-seop(Uljin National Forest Management Office) : "We work as hard as we can, but we eventually become exhausted and we cannot focus on a particular area as we must put out flames in multiple locations simultaneously."

Local governments operate their own squads for wildfire prevention. There are some ten thousand forest fire prevention agents nationwide. However, the squads are understaffed and most of their members are of an advanced age, as they receive only basic wages and work on six-month contracts. Last year, the median age of workers at firefighting squads was 61. About 76 percent of them are over 55.

[Soundbite] Han Yun-do(65 years old, Wildfire prevention squad agent) : "Extinguishing the wildfires in Uljin was difficult and physically taxing, especially for older people like me."

With professional skills lacking, firefighting agents face difficulties extinguishing fires at nighttime and are mostly dispatched to put out remaining sparks and monitor smoldering fires.

[Soundbite] Moon Hyun-chul(Korea Forest Fire Management Service Association) : "The Korea Forest Service and local governments need an integrated system for recruiting, managing, educating and training ground firefighters."

Many emphasize the need to secure more professional firefighting agents at the forest authorities and local governments. However, challenges remain, including the lack of funding and curbs in hiring public officials.