"They Get a Good Night's Sleep and Earn Twice My Salary... Honestly, I'm So Jealous I Could Die": Civil Servant's Post Targeting Firefighters Sparks Outrage

"Good night's sleep on night shifts, twice the salary"
Online debate over firefighters' working conditions reignites

Amid controversy over Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae's so-called remark that the fire service is a "fiscal drain," a post arguing that firefighters are "a drain" because they earn high salaries relative to their working conditions has sparked heated debate.

Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae looks at the back of a firefighter grieving over a colleague's injury at the scene of a fire at a metal-painting factory in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, on the 16th. Yonhap News

A post titled "Firefighters really are a drain" was recently uploaded to Blind, an anonymous online community for office workers. The author, identified as A, listed their occupation as a current civil servant.

"Line-of-duty death rate for firefighters is around 0.006%... lower than the workplace-accident death rate for ordinary workers"

A wrote: "This time, they just managed to get one case right. The line-of-duty death rate for firefighters is around 0.006% to 0.007%. That's not much different from the 0.005% rate for ordinary civil servants, including those in general administrative roles."

A continued: "The workplace-accident death rate for ordinary workers is 0.0098%, higher than that for firefighters. Even at the high end, the on-duty death rate for firefighting officials is about average for other occupations. The line-of-duty death rate for police officers is even higher, at 0.010%."

A emphasized: "Among correctional officers, police officers and firefighters, firefighters are the only ones who prefer desk jobs to field work. That means they 'get paid for doing nothing' when there are no calls. Everyone, including the public and civil servants, works hard, but it's completely wrong that firefighters are the only ones constantly held up as heroes."

"They get a good night's sleep on the night shift and leave work, while earning twice my salary"

A added: "I have a friend who's a firefighter, and he told me he stays up all night gaming at a PC cafe, then goes to work and sleeps. Honestly, I'm so jealous I could die. It feels like they're covering people's eyes and ears and treating them like fools when they don't know the whole story."

A concluded: "I wrote this because I'm unhappy that firefighters get a good night's sleep on night shifts and then leave work, earn almost twice my salary, and are treated like heroes. Firefighters are the absolute masters of media manipulation."

The post prompted heated debate among online users. Some supported A's argument, saying, "More than 70% to 80% of them do nothing, yet their salaries are way too high," and "It may bother people that only firefighters are treated as heroes when soldiers also work hard."

However, there were also many critical comments, including: "They're afraid to go into the thick black smoke but can't stand being treated like heroes?" "If you're so jealous, why don't you do the job? Does risking your life for work look easy to you?" and "Since there's no war, should we disband the military and eliminate the defense budget, too?"

This is not the first controversy over firefighters' pay. In July, a post claiming that a firefighter with 12 years of service earns an annual salary of 75 million won, and that this was excessive given the number of dispatches, also sparked controversy online. In response, an online user who identified herself as the wife of a serving firefighter argued that firefighters perform a range of duties, including removing beehives, rescuing animals and conducting safety inspections for vulnerable groups.

Choo Mi-ae, governor of Gyeonggi Province, and fellow firefighters see off the funeral cortege after the funeral service for the late Fire Lieutenant Kim Jinseok at Bucheon Gymnasium in Wonmi-gu, Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, on the 19th. Yonhap News Agency

Meanwhile, during the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee's parliamentary audit of Gyeonggi Province on October 13, Governor Choo Mi-ae said of the fire service budget, "The fire service seems to be the biggest headache, a fiscal drain." She was referring to what she saw as a problem with the funding structure, under which local governments bear a substantial portion of related expenses, including personnel costs, even though firefighting officials have been transferred to national government status. After the remark sparked controversy, Governor Choo apologized, saying she had not intended to disparage firefighters.

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