Firefighter's Final Shift: He Rushed Into the Blaze Just 20 Minutes Before Clocking Out
A firefighter went into the flames just 20 minutes before the end of his shift — and never came back. On the afternoon of the 17th, a funeral altar was set up at Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital's funeral hall in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, for Firefighter Kim Jin-seok, an 11-year veteran who died in the line of duty the previous day battling a fire at a metal printing factory (a plastic products plant) in Ojeong-gu, Bucheon. Even before the altar was prepared, a steady stream of fellow firefighters in full uniform came to pay their respects. Kim was a father with a daughter set to enter elementary school next year. At the time of the accident, he had been scheduled to move into an apartment in Gyeonggi Province in two weeks.
According to his family, Kim had completed a 24-hour shift and was due to clock out at 9 a.m. that morning. But when a fire report came in at 8:38 a.m., he boarded the fire truck. He and three colleagues, who arrived as the first responding unit, entered the building's third floor straight away to fight the fire, but the flames spread in an instant, trapping two of them, including Kim, inside. The colleague who had entered with him was rescued, but Kim was found 27 minutes later, about 5 meters deeper inside. He was already in cardiac arrest.
Kim's wife said his gas mask was off when he was found, and that she asked fire officials why. She said they replied, "It has a triple-locking mechanism, so it shouldn't come off under normal circumstances — it seems to have melted in the heat." She said, "During the delayed rescue, he was forced to inhale toxic gases directly." Medical staff concluded that even if his breathing returned, he would likely have remained in a vegetative state.
The family demanded improvements to safety systems. "If he were your own child, would you have pushed him into that pit of fire?" they said. Kim's father-in-law showed a notebook in which he had written down the rescue timeline and his questions. He said, "The factory workers had all already evacuated, so there was no need for additional rescue efforts. I don't understand why a firefighter who was about to go off duty was sent to his death without even a minimal assessment of the situation." His argument was that, had the situation been dangerous, Kim should have been immediately withdrawn or additional personnel dispatched. He called it "a disaster caused by the command's misjudgment and the absence of on-scene control systems," and demanded improvements to safety systems.
When Gyeonggi Province Gov. Choo Mi-ae visited the funeral hall that afternoon, the family pressed their demands. The father-in-law said, "My granddaughter had just received her school enrollment notice for next year. What has the state done for our safety?" and added, "I never knew it could be this hard to live an ordinary life — going to work and coming home — in South Korea." After paying her respects for about 30 minutes, Gov. Choo apologized for her earlier 'fire department budget straw' remarks, saying, "There was no intention whatsoever to disparage firefighters."
The fire broke out at around 8:38 a.m. the previous day and was extinguished after 2 hours and 28 minutes. Kim died, one firefighter in his 40s was seriously injured, and a total of eight people were hurt, including four firefighters suffering from heat exhaustion and two factory workers treated for smoke inhalation.
