Young Daughter’s Farewell Letter Mourns Firefighter Killed in Bucheon Factory Blaze
A letter written by the six-year-old daughter of firefighter Kim Jin-seok has deepened public mourning after he was killed while responding to a factory fire in Bucheon, west of Seoul.
A farewell letter written by the young daughter of a firefighter killed in a factory blaze in Bucheon has brought renewed attention to the human cost of emergency response work in South Korea.
Kim Jin-seok, a veteran firefighter with 11 years of service, died after entering a burning metalworking factory in the city west of Seoul. His daughter, who is six and due to begin elementary school next year, wrote to her father while the family was at the funeral hall.
In the short letter, she said she already missed him and knew that he had loved her most. She promised that they would meet again when she was grown up and closed by repeatedly telling him she loved him. Beside the message, she drew a fire engine and wrote the Korean word for an emergency dispatch.
The letter was made public on Sunday after lawmaker Song Young-gil shared a photograph of it on social media following a visit to the funeral. Song said seeing the message beside Kim’s portrait moved him to tears and strengthened his resolve to prevent firefighters from leaving for work without returning home.
Kim had been nearing the end of a 24-hour shift when the fire was reported at 8:38 a.m. on Friday. He was due to finish work at 9 a.m. but joined the response with roughly 20 minutes remaining in his shift.
Kim and three other members of the first team to arrive entered the third floor to fight the blaze. As the fire spread rapidly, Kim and another firefighter became trapped inside. His colleague was rescued, while Kim was found about 27 minutes later, roughly five meters farther inside the building, in cardiac arrest.
The fire was extinguished after two hours and 28 minutes. Another firefighter in his 40s suffered serious injuries, while four other firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion. Two factory workers received hospital treatment for smoke inhalation, bringing the number of injured people to seven.
Kim, who had been married for eight years, had planned to move with his wife and daughter into a new apartment in Gyeonggi Province. President Lee Jae Myung visited his funeral altar on Saturday.
The government posthumously promoted Kim by one rank to fire lieutenant and awarded him the Order of Service Merit. Authorities also plan to support his burial at a national cemetery.