The fire authorities plan to expand the '119 Pass' nationwide, allowing firefighters to quickly pass through the main entrance of apartments and other multi-family housing.
On the 29th, the Korea Fire Agency announced the '2025 Comprehensive Countermeasure for Rapid Dispatch at Disaster Sites,' which includes this information. According to the agency, as of the end of last year, the 'arrival rate within 7 minutes' for fire trucks at fire scenes averaged 69.2% nationwide. The arrival rate in eight special metropolitan cities was higher than the national average, at 80.84%.
This is a trend that has been increasing every year. The '7-minute arrival' is commonly referred to as the golden time for rescue. This is based on the theory that the survival rate of victims rapidly decreases after 8 minutes have passed since the outbreak of a fire. However, the Korea Fire Agency noted that due to varying conditions such as increased traffic, waiting at signals, and narrow alleyways, the dispatch environment differs by region, indicating that further improvement is necessary.
To address this, it has been decided to expand the 'Emergency Access System,' referred to as the 119 Pass, nationwide. The 119 Pass is a sticker type tag that allows firefighters responding to a report to immediately enter the entrances of multi-family housing using work mobile phones or handheld radios. Currently, it is being piloted in nine regions, including Busan, Gangwon, and Ulsan. The Korea Fire Agency aims to install the 119 Pass in 20% of the 11,000 multi-family housing complexes nationwide by the end of this year and 40% by next year.
In addition, the installation of traffic signal control systems in front of fire stations will also increase. This system controls traffic lights in front of fire stations using a separate switch installed within the fire stations. Last year, 20 additional systems were installed, completing the installation at 580 fire stations nationwide.
The operation of the emergency vehicle priority signal system, which allows emergency vehicles to pass through intersections with signal control, will also be expanded. Last year, this system was newly introduced at 5,318 intersections and is currently applied to 27,772 intersections within 18 regional fire headquarters.
Furthermore, the Korea Fire Agency introduced a regional central control method to ensure that emergency vehicle priority passage could be applied without city or county boundaries since last year. The agency explained that it is now possible for fire vehicles to respond quickly and efficiently across city and county boundaries during large-scale disasters, like the recent wildfire in Yeongnam.
The Korea Fire Agency also replaced the first three digits of the license plates of the 7,917 emergency vehicles nationwide to '998.' This change is to ensure that when emergency vehicles enter apartment complexes, multi-use facilities, and educational institutions, the barriers automatically open upon recognizing the emergency vehicle's exclusive license plate.
In addition, to reduce areas where fire trucks have difficulty accessing, it has been decided to collaborate with local governments to decrease by more than 5% from last year the areas where fire trucks can't access due to narrow roads and habitual illegal parking. A principle of zero tolerance will be applied to actions obstructing the passage of emergency vehicles, and stringent measures will be taken.