Central funds cover just 8.4% of firefighters’ pay

Central funds cover just 8.4% of firefighters’ pay. Verified reporting and official documentation provided by ALISOPLAY based on The Korea Herald announcements.

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Local governments still fund nearly 90% of fire service budgets, six years after firefighters became national civil servants Gyeonggi Gov.

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• Choo Mi-ae speaks during a visit to the site of a fire at a metal painting factory in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Friday.
• (Bucheon-si) Gyeonggi Gov.
• Choo Mi-ae’s remarks comparing firefighting costs to a major drain on provincial finances have renewed scrutiny of a funding system in which local governments pay nearly nine-tenths of the fire service budget, despite firefighters’ national civil-service status.
• Budgets for fire headquarters across the country’s 17 provincial and metropolitan governments total 8.6 trillion won ($6.4 billion) this year, according to figures from Gyeonggi Province.
• Local governments cover 7.67 trillion won, or 89.3 percent, while the central government provides 923.9 billion won, or 10.7 percent.
• The local share is even higher for personnel costs.
• Of the 6.51 trillion won budgeted for firefighters’ pay this year, 549.6 billion won, or 8.4 percent, is funded by the central government through fire safety subsidies.
• Local governments cover the remaining 91.6 percent.
• The central government’s share of fire service budgets rose from about 7 percent in 2019 to 11.5 percent in 2020, when firefighters’ status was unified under the national civil service.
• It peaked at 14.9 percent in 2021, then fell to 12.3 percent in 2022 and 12.4 percent in 2023.
• The share dropped to 10.1 percent in 2024, rebounded to 11.5 percent last year and fell to 10.7 percent this year.