'I miss you, Dad': Firefighter killed in blaze leaves behind 6-year-old daughter

A six-year-old girl has expressed her heartfelt sorrow in a letter to her late father, a firefighter who perished while combating a factory inferno in Bucheon on Friday. Rep. Song Young-gil of the governing Democratic Party of Korea shared the letter on social media over the weekend. Accompanying the letter was a drawing of a fire engine, captioned with the words, "Dad, I miss you. Let's make sure we meet again someday. I'll probably be grown up by then. I love you, Dad. I miss you."

The firefighter, identified as Kim Jin-seok, had just wrapped up a grueling 24-hour shift, with a scheduled finish time of 9 a.m. on Friday, when an emergency call arrived at 8:38 a.m. Kim promptly boarded a fire truck and became one of the initial responders to reach the scene. Alongside three other colleagues, Kim ventured into the third floor of the factory, where relentless flames had rapidly engulfed the area.

Tragically, he and another firefighter became ensnared amidst the rapidly spreading blaze. Their colleague was eventually rescued, but Kim was discovered approximately five meters deeper within the inferno, already experiencing cardiac arrest. Sadly, he was later pronounced deceased.