Gyeonggi Province Establishes 23 New 119 Safety Centers Over Three Years of Seventh Civilian Government Term...Achieves One-Minute Reduction in Golden Time

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] #A fire broke out at a restaurant in Guri city on the morning of January 12 this year.

The fire, which could have spread into a major blaze, extinguished after burning only some kitchen appliances, fortunately with minimal damage.

This was thanks to rapid response from a 119 Safety Center just 2 km away from the restaurant, which extinguished the fire in six minutes.

The 119 Safety Center had opened only a month prior. Had the center not been newly established, response time during rush hour would have taken over 15 minutes, a harrowing situation that could have resulted in a major fire.

#On December 14, 2020, a worker lost consciousness and collapsed at a logistics center in Icheon.

A 119 Safety Center 7 km away immediately responded and arrived at the scene in just over eight minutes, performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other treatment before transferring the patient to a nearby hospital.

Thanks to the efforts of the emergency response team, the patient, who had no consciousness or breathing, regained consciousness before being transferred to the hospital and was able to save his life.

The respective 119 Safety Center opened in September 2019. It was a miraculous moment in which a newly established 119 Safety Center, in an urgent situation where every second counts, saved the precious life of a province resident.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 9th that over the past three years from 2018 to the present, it has strengthened response capabilities for fires, disasters, and emergency services by establishing 119 Safety Centers in areas previously left in disaster blind spots and expanding fire stations.

According to the Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Management Headquarters, the number of 119 Safety Centers in Gyeonggi Province, which stood at 166 in 2017, increased to 189 with 23 new centers established over the past three years from 2018 to the present during the seventh civilian government term.

Once six centers scheduled for installation next year are completed, the number of 119 Safety Centers in the province will reach 195.

The number of fire stations increased by one to 35 with the opening of Suwon South Fire Station in July 2019.

Recently, the agenda for common asset review for the establishment of Hwaseong East Fire Station (tentative name) has passed through the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly, and the establishment of additional fire stations is also proceeding without delay.

Through these efforts to expand fire service facilities, Gyeonggi Province has reduced the average fire truck response time from 8 minutes 53 seconds in 2017 to 7 minutes 51 seconds at the end of last year, a reduction of 1 minute 2 seconds.

Gyeonggi Province anticipates that fire service demand will continue to increase due to urban development and has commissioned the Gyeonggi Research Institute to conduct a "priority ranking study for establishment" of 22 newly selected 119 Safety Centers through recent demand surveys.

Based on the results of the study, the plan is to proceed with the establishment of 119 Safety Centers in priority order without delay.

Lee Sang-gyu, Director of Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Management Headquarters, said, "The establishment and distributed deployment of 119 Safety Centers have greatly contributed to dramatically reducing fire truck and ambulance response times and securing the golden time," and added, "We plan to accelerate the establishment of fire service facilities to provide equitable fire services without any blind spots in fire protection coverage going forward."