▲ The late Fire Inspector Kim Jin-seok, who died in the line of duty
Today (October 17) morning at the funeral hall of Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital in Gyeonggi Province.
Outcries of grief echoed continuously from the funeral parlor for the late Fire Inspector Kim Jin-seok, who died in the line of duty during a fire at a metal injection printing factory in Nae-dong, Ojeong-gu, Bucheon, which occurred yesterday.
The funeral hall turned into a sea of tears over the sudden death of the head of a household, leaving behind a young daughter scheduled to enter elementary school next year.
It was reported that Fire Inspector Kim and his wife, a daycare assistant teacher, were planning to move into a new home at an apartment in Gyeonggi Province in just two weeks, adding to the heartbreak.
According to the bereaved family, Fire Inspector Kim, an 11-year veteran firefighter, was just about to finish his 24-hour shift and get off work at 9:00 AM yesterday.
However, upon hearing news of the fire at 8:38 AM, Fire Inspector Kim boarded the fire truck without hesitation.
It was just about 20 minutes before his off-duty time.
Fire Inspector Kim and three others, who arrived as the first response team, immediately entered the third floor of the building to extinguish the flames, but as the fire spread in an instant, two people including him were trapped inside.
A colleague who entered with him managed to escape narrowly, but Fire Inspector Kim was found about 27 minutes later at a spot roughly 5 meters deeper inside.
He was already in a state of cardiac arrest.
The older sister of Fire Inspector Kim's wife wailed, saying, "I was told that his gas mask had come off when he was found, and when I asked the fire department, they said 'it has a triple-locking device so it normally wouldn't come off, but it seems to have melted from the heat.' During the delayed rescue time, he had no choice but to inhale toxic fumes intact."
His condition upon arriving at the hospital was too harrowing to look at.
With medical staff giving opinions that even if his breathing miraculously returned, he would likely remain in a vegetative state, the family had to prepare their hearts in advance.
The bereaved family strongly criticized the command and rescue systems on site, asking, "If it were their own child, would they have pushed them into that fire pit?"
The father-in-law of Fire Inspector Kim wiped away tears while showing a notebook densely filled with the rescue timeline and questions from that time.
He said, "Factory workers had already all evacuated outside, so there was no need for additional life rescue. I don't know why they sent an officer on the verge of getting off work into the jaws of death without even a minimum grasp of the situation."
He raised his voice, stating, "If it was a dangerous situation, they should have had him withdraw immediately or deployed additional personnel. In the end, this is a disaster brought about by the command's misjudgment and the absence of an on-site control system."
He appealed, "The state always emphasizes the golden time, but my son-in-law missed the golden time due to a delayed rescue. We must thoroughly overhaul the safety system so that such vain sacrifices are never repeated."
Earlier yesterday at around 8:38 AM, a fire broke out at a metal injection printing factory in Nae-dong, Ojeong-gu, Bucheon, and was extinguished after 2 hours and 28 minutes.
The fire resulted in the death of Fire Inspector Kim and left another firefighter in his 40s seriously injured.
In addition, a total of eight people suffered moderate to minor injuries, including four other firefighters receiving hospital treatment for heat exhaustion symptoms and two factory officials for smoke inhalation.
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