"Fire reported! Gas explosion at a ground-floor shopping area of a high-rise apartment! Multiple casualties!"
On the 25th, sirens blared loudly on the sandbar at Taehwagang National Garden in Ulsan. Fire trucks headed in a line to a nearby high-rise apartment complex. Not only firefighters but also police, soldiers, and public health center staff moved quickly. Red and white smoke billowed.
It was the site of this year's first "READY Korea training," conducted jointly by 39 related agencies. The exercise checks the joint response system between the public and private sectors to prepare for large-scale, complex disasters. The drill that day assumed a fire breaking out in a high-rise building and flames spreading to the surroundings on the wind.
◇Fire suppression and search in place of firefighters in the flames
The training continued with a scenario assuming an electric vehicle explosion in an underground parking lot. When a fire breaks out, underground parking lots do not vent smoke, making it hard to secure visibility and difficult for firefighters to enter. The first to be deployed was a robot dog. Through a camera mounted on the robot dog, responders checked the scene, and an unmanned firefighting robot followed behind.
Park Jong-il, a fire lieutenant with the Yeongnam 119 Special Rescue Team, watched the controller screen and moved the unmanned firefighting robot to a position close to the burning electric vehicle. A stream of water shot out from the nozzle at the front of the unmanned firefighting robot. After the smoke dispersed, firefighters threw a fire blanket over it. They then set up a portable folding immersion tank to completely extinguish the EV fire.
Hyundai Motor Group donated four unmanned firefighting robots to the National Fire Agency this year. One unit each was first deployed to the National 119 Rescue Headquarters Metropolitan 119 Special Rescue Team and the Yeongnam 119 Special Rescue Team, and this month deployment was completed with one unit each to the Hwaseong Fire Station in Gyeonggi and the South Chungcheong Fire Headquarters.
Unmanned firefighting robots have already been deployed to real scenes multiple times. Representative examples include the factory fire in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong, in Jan. and the recent fire at Anjeon Industry in Daedeok District, Daejeon, which left 74 casualties.
Park Jong-il, a fire lieutenant who received unmanned firefighting robot operation training at Hyundai Rotem this year, was dispatched with the robot to the Eumseong County factory fire. Park cited as a strength the ability to operate the unmanned firefighting robot from about 700 meters away. Park said, "At fire scenes, it can enter areas that are difficult for firefighters to access directly and carry out suppression work."
◇Maintains 50 degrees even in hundreds of degrees of heat
The unmanned firefighting robot was made by adding firefighting equipment to Hyundai Rotem's multipurpose unmanned vehicle HR-Sherpa. It is deployed in place of firefighters in enclosed underground spaces or large areas such as factories and logistics warehouses to conduct suppression and search operations.
Because such fire scenes radiate heat reaching 800 degrees, the unmanned firefighting robot is designed to withstand it. The key is a self-spray system. Twenty-four 1.8-millimeter nozzles spray about 40 liters of water per minute around the vehicle body. It can reportedly lower the temperature around the robot to about 50 degrees even at fire scenes. Even with the water cannon and the self-spray system running, it can continue suppression and search for about 15 hours.
The unmanned firefighting robot is equipped with special tires that withstand high temperatures and an in-wheel motor system in which each of the six wheels is driven independently, allowing it to climb obstacles 30 centimeters high. It can reach a top speed of 50 kilometers per hour. An artificial intelligence-based infrared camera system is also applied to assess the scene amid thick smoke.
◇Recovery support vehicles, EV drill lances… donation relay by Hyundai Motor Group
Hyundai Motor Group had been steadily supporting the firefighting authorities before the unmanned firefighting robots. In 2023, it donated 10 Firefighter Recovery Support Vehicles so firefighters operating at disaster sites could rest. At the time, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun received a report that "there are only 10 recovery support vehicles nationwide and many are outdated," and ordered their development himself.
In 2024, it also developed the EV Drill Lance, equipment to respond to electric vehicle fires, and supplied 250 units to the National Fire Agency. The device pierces the EV battery pack and sprays water directly inside, a method that is seen as supplementing the limits of existing extinguishing approaches. The unmanned firefighting robot was also reportedly a project that Chairman Chung personally oversaw from development through rollout.
At last month's donation ceremony for the unmanned firefighting robots, Chairman Chung said, "We developed the robot to realize together the value of 'safety' that firefighters who rush into the fray have protected," and added, "We hope this robot, which brings together Hyundai Motor Group's technology, will be deployed a step ahead into dangerous scenes as a reliable teammate to safeguard the crews' safety."
Hyundai Motor Group's support for firefighting has continued since the previous generation. The Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation, established during the tenure of Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo, has supported more than 2,300 people with the Ondream Nara Love Scholarship. An industry official said, "Hyundai Motor Group has continued to contribute not only technological support but also to improving firefighters' treatment and expanding safety infrastructure."
The National Fire Agency plans to deploy the four unmanned firefighting robots introduced this year to actual disaster scenes, analyze their performance, and then review whether to introduce more.