'If I don't make it, female junior colleagues may not have a chance,’ says first female fire chief in Korea

Lee Oh-sook, new chief of Jeonbuk Fire Headquarters. Courtesy of Jeonbuk Fire Headquarters

"I hope you can pave the way for your female junior colleagues."

This is what Lee Oh-sook, 57, head of the Jeonbuk Fire Department, heard when she was offered to move to the National Emergency Management Agency when she was working as the head of the rescue team at the Dongbu Fire Station in Daejeon in 2009. Until then, there were no female officers in the headquarters of the National Emergency Management Agency. She was assigned to the Fire Equipment Division of the agency, and became the first female executive to work at the headquarters. "I thought, 'If I don't make it, female junior colleagues may not have a chance,'" she said.

Last month, she became the first woman to be promoted to fire chief and appointed as the head of the Jeonbuk Fire Department. Of the 70,000 fire officials, only five, including the head of the National Fire Agency, are now higher than her. She was also the first female spokesperson for the National Fire Agency, the first female fire chief in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, and the first female director of the 119 Safety Center in Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province.

Firefighting is one of the most male-dominated organizations in the public service. We met her at the Jeonbuk Fire Headquarters on June 21, who had been breaking the thickest "glass ceiling."

"I became a firefighter in 1988 under the influence of my father, who was a volunteer fire battalion chief," she said. She became a firefighter in 1988 because her father, who "gathered people and rushed to the scene of forest fires," looked awesome. However, she was not assigned to the department she was sent to because the colleagues refused to work with women, and she had to work in another department.

She was tasked with documentary work, but she did his best. At the same time, she found work to do for herself.

"I filled out personnel record cards instead of a senior colleague when he looked busy. Instead of another senior in the civil service department, I filed simple complaints, such as 'Reporting to Replace the Fire Manager of the Building.’ In a nutshell, I played a role of 'libero.'" One day, the head of the department who had refused to work with her said he would work with her. "I think he saw me working and changed his mind."

She also pioneered the career path on her own. Back then, it was difficult for a woman to be promoted to a higher rank as she could not take major tasks so she prepared for promotion exams. This helped her advance faster than other female seniors and became the basis for becoming the first woman to advance to a higher rank. "If my husband or family hadn't helped me with housework and childcare, I wouldn't have dared to work all night or study for the promotion tests," she said. "I was luckier than other female seniors in an era when women took care of childcare and housework for granted."

She continued to solve challenges in her own way. When she was head of the 119 Safety Center, a conflict between local residents and the fire department over roadside parking arose, and she came up with a solution to resolve it by "parking on one side of the road instead of both.” When it became difficult to find medical staff to help paramedics, she devised a system where local doctors took turns working at 119. "I tried to think, 'What can I do in that situation,' rather than 'How bad is the situation,'" she said.

Asked if she paved the way for her younger female colleagues, she said, "They are better than me." She added, "Women are now entering the field of fire suppression, which used to be a male-dominated field. They make efforts to the extent that they are comparable to men in physical strength."

"If you're not willing to put yourself in harm's way for others, and if you don't consider the reward from that to be the greatest one, then you can’t take this job. Be it a man or a woman, they're all 'firefighters.’”

Her "ambition" is to create an environment where younger female colleagues do not have to live the same life she did. "I have never had a hobby before. My husband and his family sacrificed for me. I don't want my juniors to live like that."

"There is a saying that 'when there is a fire, it is the DNA of a firefighter to run into the fire instead of avoiding it,' but the time has passed when only such DNA is emphasized," she said. "I want to create a fire department that not only cares about the property and lives of citizens, but also the safety of colleagues and juniors."

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.