Firefighters in South Korea are ill-equipped, as a large amount of their overstretched safety equipment has expired, the disaster management agency said Thursday.

According to data compiled by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), 17.3 percent of apparatus for firefighters and 19.4 percent of fire engines across the country had outlived their usefulness as of the end of last year.

Nearly 25 percent of fire-proof overalls, gloves, and helmets have expired, while 16.8 percent of safety shoes and 31.6 percent of radioactivity-retardant clothing well surpassed their use-by period, the NEMA found.

Fire trucks also turned out to be worn out, with 11 percent of ladder trucks across the nation having been used over 15 years past their expiration period.
The government has vowed to replace old equipment to ensure the safety of firefighters on duty in the wake of a tragedy in Gwangju, some 330 kilometers of south of Seoul, where a firefighter fell from an obsolete ladder truck to his death while removing icicles early last year.

“The tight financial situation each provincial government is facing has been delaying improvement,” an official of the NEMA said, requesting anonymity.

Firefighters have also suffered from a lack of such equipment, the NEMA data showed. Some 7 percent, 18.7 percent and 21.8 percent of firefighters in the country do not have their own fire-proof clothing, gloves and shoes, respectively.

“More support from the central government is required, which would undoubtedly help protect not only firefighters, but the public,” the NEMA official said. 

(Yonhap News)