Firefighters Safeguard Public Safety Even While Traveling or Off Duty... 170 Million Won in Special Performance Awards

National Fire Agency Selects Recipients for Special Ad Hoc Awards
166 Million Won Awarded to 69 Firefighters
"Recognizing Dedication and Innovative Achievements Across All Administrative Sectors"

The National Fire Agency announced on September 6, 2026, that it had selected a total of 30 outstanding public achievements that realized the utmost value of public safety across disaster sites and fire administration as recipients of the 2026 Special Performance Awards.

This Special Performance Award is the second such recognition this year, following the first-half awards held in June. A total prize fund of 166 million won was distributed among 69 firefighters who took the lead in the 30 exemplary cases.

The evaluation process involved case screening by the National Fire Agency and individual city/provincial fire headquarters. Selected cases were then reviewed by both the general public and the Central Public Review Committee. Based on the final scoring range, the prize for each case ranged from 1 million to as much as 10 million won.

This round of awards recognized not only the hidden on-site efforts to protect citizens’ precious lives and prevent major accidents in urgent situations but also various achievements that have led to institutional improvements.

Notable examples of on-site response include: performing CPR on a collapsed citizen during morning rush hour and reviving a cardiac arrest patient’s spontaneous circulation; quickly extinguishing a fire in an 8-ton refrigerated truck inside a tunnel while on a business trip, thereby preventing a mass casualty incident; rescuing a citizen who was attempting to jump from a building rooftop while off-duty; and successfully locating and rescuing a non-responsive 119 caller by identifying clues from their social network profile photo. These testimonies of firefighters’ dedication across various times and places received high marks.

Policy achievement cases included: establishing emergency medical cooperation models with the military and medical institutions tailored to local characteristics; building a smart disaster command system using drones; attaching retroreflective identification stickers with unit and vehicle names to the upper parts of fire vehicles to enable an aerial visibility-based control and management system; and operating an aerial emergency medical service model that overcame the geographical limitations of island regions. These policies, developed in response to issues identified in the field, were also chosen as recipients of the Special Performance Awards.

Choi Yongchul, Commissioner of the National Fire Agency, stated, "We are committed to identifying and honoring the dedication and creative achievements demonstrated both at disaster sites and throughout the administration." He added, "We will continue to operate the awards system to ensure that the efforts of firefighters to protect the lives and safety of the public are duly and promptly recognized."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.