An employee at a fire station in Incheon sparked controversy after posting on social media (SNS) a message wishing for "incidents and accidents." Fire authorities, however, took into account the employee's usual work attitude and ended the matter with strengthened training without separate disciplinary action.
According to the Incheon Fire Service Headquarters on the 27th, the person who posted the message that ran counter to common sense on a personal Instagram account on the 25th was identified as A, a fixed-term worker hired as a substitute paramedic at a 119 safety center at Namdong Fire Station.
A filmed and posted a photo showing three colleagues in fire uniforms sitting in an office and a note typed on a computer. The memo in the photo read, "Please let there be more than 15 callouts today," "Please let there be two cardiac arrests at a nursing home," and "Please let there be one childbirth in a subway restroom," along with the phrase, "All gods in heaven, please, we ask you."
The post was deleted the same day, but a complaint was filed through the national civil complaint portal. A was said to have testified in the investigation by fire authorities that the note was written in the office "without malicious intent" and the photo was uploaded "as a prank." A reportedly felt mental strain as the incident became public and took leave until recently.
Fire authorities determined that the incident damaged the organization's image and conducted special training for A, explaining SNS ethics rules and inappropriate cases. However, considering A's usual work attitude and relationships with colleagues, they did not impose separate disciplinary action.
To prevent similar cases, the Incheon Fire Service Headquarters plans to provide training by the end of this month to 18 fixed-term paramedics and about 600 firefighter paramedics, using materials such as the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's public officials' SNS guidelines.