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When water pipes burst, veteran comes to the rescue

Published: 15 Jan. 2010, 19:12

Park Hak-seon

The bitter cold weather permeating Seoul is keeping Park Hak-seon as busy as a snowplow driver during a severe winter storm.

Ever since temperatures plummeted over the past two weeks, Park -a public servant at the city of Chuncheon’s daily service center in Gangwon Province - and his colleague have been receiving an avalanche of calls each day from residents that need help repairing water pipes that are frozen or have burst.

In just the first 10 days of this month, Park and his co-worker received 129 service calls from the neighborhood. Call volume this year is on pace to blow away the total from January 2009, when the two received 163 calls for the entire month.

No matter how many calls Park receives a day, though, the 55-year-old manages to replace all broken pipes, relying on his vast experience in the field.

“It’s been 30 years that I’ve been repairing water pipes as a civil servant, and I’ve definitely struggled the most during winter,” he said in a phone interview.

When asked about the most memorable year in his career, Park noted the winter of 2002, when the country faced one of the coldest and snowiest winters in recent memory.

“The temperature back then dropped below minus 20 degrees Celsius for around 15 days,” he said, noting that the city was overwhelmed with more than 300 calls a day from frantic residents asking him to replace frozen pipes. “Now, eight years later, we’re seeing that type of winter again.”

Every morning before dawn, Park puts three or four replacement water pipes in his vehicle and heads directly to the homes of residents who have called for help.

While it sounds like grueling work, it’s actually much better for Park than in the past.

“Now I drive a car instead of riding a bicycle in the cold weather,” he said.

If the deep freeze continues, Park suggests that residents wrap their water pipes with Styrofoam or cloth if temperatures dip below 13 degrees Celsius to avoid problems with their water pipes.

“It typically costs more than 100,000 won [$88.80] to replace a frozen pipe,” Park said. “What breaks my heart is that it is usually the lower-income families that call us for repairs.”

By Lee Eun-joo [[email protected]]