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| ▲ President Yoon Suk Yeol (2nd from R, front) and his wife, Kim Keon Hee (4th from R, front), holding the hands of children of firefighters who died on duty, enter a ceremony to mark Firefighters' Day at Yongsan Children's Garden near the presidential office in Seoul on Nov. 9, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap) |
Yoon-firefighters
Yoon vows to support firefighters through world-class disaster response system
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, Nov. 9 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Thursday to better support firefighters by developing a world-class disaster response system built on artificial intelligence (AI) technology and robots.
Yoon made the pledge during a ceremony marking the 61st Firefighters' Day at Yongsan Children's Garden, which was attended by some 1,000 people, including firefighters from across the country and family members of those killed in the line of duty.
"Our government will not spare any assistance until our firefighting organization is equipped with the world's top disaster response system," he said, citing the growing threat of natural disasters amid climate change, and new dangers brought by industrialization and urbanization.
"We will build a next-generation firefighting system that uses AI technology to automatically identify the order of priority for emergency dispatches," he said.
"We will increase the number of mobile firefighting water tanks used to respond to fires in electric vehicles and accelerate the supply of firefighting robots for sites that are difficult to reach by humans," he added.
Yoon praised the firefighters for their dedication and spirit of solidarity during rescue operations in the aftermath of this year's deadly earthquake in Turkey and during operations to put out wildfires in Canada.
He also vowed to improve firefighters' welfare.
"Not only will we increase firefighters' personal protective equipment, we will actively support the construction of a national firefighters hospital, and a center to train firefighters' minds and bodies so they can cure burns or post-traumatic stress disorders," he said.
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