On March 4th, simultaneous forest fires occurred in Uljin, Gyeongbuk, and Samcheok, Gangwon, along the east coast. The fire was extinguished on the 13th, after a record burn time of 213 hours and 43 minutes, the longest in Korean history. It caused 18,463 ha of forest damage, and many facilities were damaged. Many were deployed to extinguish the fire, including professional firefighters, but it turned out that the total manpower was insufficient. In addition, the forest fire prevention and control team, which is separate from professional firefighters, is also going through a manpower shortage and insufficient selection and management system problems. The Korea Forest Service needs to expand the professional firefighting manpower and build a new management system.
When a forest fire occurs, professional firefighters from the Korea Forest Service are put in place to extinguish it. Airborne fire extinguishers, which descend from helicopters on ropes to extinguish fires and special fire extinguishers, which extinguish fires through specialized equipment such as mechanical equipment systems are included. However, it turned out that the number of such professionals is insufficient. According to KBS on March 19th, there are only 500 professionals nationwide. If forest fires occur simultaneously in multiple areas such as happened in March, it becomes more difficult to extinguish the fire with only 500 people. In order to reinforce the shortage of manpower, the Korea Forest Service and local governments are operating a forest fire prevention and control team composed of local residents separate from professional manpower. They oversee monitoring and responding to small-scale forest fires in the first place. However, as of 2021, the number of people in the team is only 11,110 nationwide. Their average age is close to 61, and 76% of the team are over 55. Also, according to KBS, their daily wage is set at the national minimum wage, and the shortage of manpower is getting worse because they are being selected as contract workers for six months. Accordingly, voices are emerging that the Korea Forest Service and local governments should comprehensively select and professionally nurture firefighters to solve the problems of low wages and unstable employment. In fact, on March 18th, Moon Hyeon-cheol, president of the Korean forest fire academic society said, “It is necessary to establish a precise system for the Korea Forest Service and local governments to select, operate, educate, and train ground firefighters in an integrated way.” The Korea Forest Service needs to expand its professional manpower and build a new management system to solve the manpower and wage shortage, and job instability problems.
Recently, large-scale forest fires are occurring more frequently due to climate change. In particular, as 60% of Korea is mountainous, it is essential to expand professional manpower to extinguish forest fires and prepare a precise system. According to KBS on March 19th, an official from the Jeonnam Provincial Office said, “The state funding for forest fires is still insufficient. […] Just as the Korea Forest Service has a specialized special firefighting team, the government should manage local governments to also secure professional manpower.” The expansion of the Korea Forest Service's professional firefighting manpower, and the establishment of an integrated management system with local governments, will solve the currently mentioned problems such as job instability and further expedite early suppression of forest fires.