Gyeonggi Province's Emergency 119 Calls Received Every 13 Seconds Last Year

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] An analysis has revealed that last year, emergency 119 calls were received once every 13 seconds in Gyeonggi Province, with rescue and emergency medical calls increasing while fire-related calls decreased.

According to the "2021 119 Call Reception Analysis Results" from the Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters on the 16th, the total number of 119 calls received in the province last year was 2,414,262, an increase of 9.8% (214,690 calls) from 2,199,572 calls in 2020.

This equates to an average of 6,614 calls per day, 276 calls per hour, and 4.6 calls per minute, meaning one call was received every 13 seconds.

By type of call, dispatch-related calls for fires, rescues, and emergency services totaled 955,334 calls, accounting for 39.6% of the total, while non-dispatch calls including guidance and transfers to other agencies totaled 1,458,928 calls, accounting for 60.4%.

Dispatch-related calls increased by 12.5% compared to the previous year (849,373 calls), and non-dispatch calls increased by 8.1% compared to the previous year (1,350,199 calls).

Among dispatch-related calls, rescue calls showed the largest increase, rising by 20.4% (35,547 calls) from 149,934 calls in 2020 to 180,481 calls in 2021. Emergency medical calls increased by 14.3% (80,296 calls) from 561,883 calls in 2020 to 642,179 calls in 2021. Meanwhile, fire-related calls decreased by 2.1% (2,363 calls) from 112,821 calls in 2020 to 110,458 calls in 2021.

By month, July recorded the highest number of calls at 296,390 (12.3%), followed by August with 273,195 calls (11.3%) and June with 256,180 calls (10.6%).

This was analyzed as being due to an increase in beehive removal operations starting in June.

Looking at call reception by region, Suwon had the most calls at 140,442, followed by Goyang with 138,696 calls, Yongin with 124,370 calls, and Hwaseong with 123,510 calls, showing that call volume was proportional to population size.

Seo Sam-gi, Director of the Disaster Comprehensive Command Center at the Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters, said, "We plan to carefully analyze the characteristics of 119 calls by region and time period and utilize these findings to improve on-site response capabilities." He added, "Since the reception of 119 calls is the starting point of disaster response for residents' safety, we will do our best to faithfully carry out the role of disaster control tower this year as well."