President Moon Jae-in reaffirmed Wednesday his election pledge to hire at least 19,000 firefighters over his five-year term and to improve their adverse working conditions, during a visit to a local fire station in Seoul.

Starting from this year, 1,500 new firefighters will be recruited to address a chronic shortage of manpower in the field, said Moon. 

“Firefighters play a key role to ensure the safety of people, but have been given an insufficient supply of equipment and manpower, and (have to cope with) poor working conditions,” Moon said to firefighters and officials at the station.

Moon said his administration will also strengthen medical support to handle firefighters’ long-neglected work-related injuries and symptoms, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and establish an independent agency for the national and provincial fire service for greater autonomy.

The plans include the reorganization of the government agencies and require parliamentary approval.

The new administration is also seeking to change the status of firemen as state employees, most of whom are currently hired by cash-short cities and provinces.

Among 43,510 firefighters across the nation, just about 1 percent were employed by the central government as of December last year.

Moon’s visit to the fire station came amid his call for support from the parliament to pass the government’s supplementary budget plan submitted on the same day for the additional recruitment of firefighters this year, along with policemen, teachers and social workers.

By Bak Se-hwan (sh@heraldcorp.com)