1,399 firefighters assaulted in the past five years... 84% of perpetrators are drunk

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Hong Jun-seok = The number of firefighters who have been assaulted by drunk emergency patients over the past five years has been found to be close to 1,400.

According to data received from the National Fire Agency by People Power Party lawmaker Kang Myeong-gu, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee on the 7th, the number of assaults on paramedics from 2021 to June of this year was counted at 1,399.

By year, there were 248 cases in 2021, 248 cases in 2022, 249 cases in 2023, 269 cases in 2024, 198 cases last year, and 148 cases as of June this year, for an average of 254 cases per year.

By reason for assault, drinking accounted for the majority at 1,180 (84.3%), followed by mental illness at 79 (5.6%) and others at 140 (10.0%).

On March 14th of this year, in Seoul, a firefighter was kicked in the head, chest, and abdomen while sterilizing a patient to measure blood sugar levels and was diagnosed with more than four weeks of paralysis.

On April 2, 2018, in Jeonbuk, a fire police officer who was assaulted on the head five times while transporting a drunk person to the hospital was admitted to the intensive care unit due to cerebral hemorrhage, pulmonary edema, and heart failure, and even died a month after the accident.

Rep. Kang Myeong-gu pointed out, "I think improvements are needed, such as setting up defense facilities inside the ambulance," and added, "We need to determine the risk of violence in advance before transporting patients, and if the risk is high, we need to come up with a plan to respond with the police or reinforce dispatch personnel."

In relation to this, Fire Commissioner Choi Yong-cheol said at the Public Administration and Security Commission's audit of government affairs that day, "I completely agree."