CFBT-KOREA Overview

CFBT-KOREA (Compartment Fire Behavior Training Korea) is an organization that originated from a fire suppression research community formed by three Korean fire service professionals Jaeyoung Yang (Gyeonggi Fire Service Academy), Hyungeun Lee (Seoul Fire & Disaster Headquarters), and Joonkyung Kim (Seoul Fire & Disaster Headquarters).

These three instructors received direct training from Shan Raffel, an Australian fire instructor who is widely recognized as the founder of modern CFBT educational philosophy and as the individual who established CFBT as a “global common language” for fire service tactical education. They were the first in Asia to be awarded the International CFBT Instructor Level 2 certification.

Each instructor serves as a fire training instructor or operational officer within their respective fire service academies and frontline response units, and they have played a central role in disseminating CFBT education across fire academies and training institutions throughout South Korea. In addition, CFBT-KOREA officially dispatches Assistant Instructors when Shan Raffel conducts CFBT instructor training programs in the Asia-Pacific region.

CFBT-KOREA (abbreviated as CFBT-KR) is a non profit professional education and academic organization established by Namwoo Kim, who oversees branding, website development, and administrative operations. The organization’s mission is to enhance Korean firefighters’ understanding of fire behavior and to strengthen real-world operational effectiveness. By introducing internationally aligned CFBT training systems and reconstructing them to suit Korea’s fireground environment, CFBT-KOREA delivers advanced training focused on science-based fire dynamics, heat transfer analysis, and tactical fire suppression methodologies.

CFBT-KOREA collaborates with leading CFBT experts from Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Hong Kong, and the United States to co-develop educational content, and systematically operates its own structured certification and training frameworks as outlined below.

Core Mission Objectives

1. Dissemination of Science-Based Firefighting Tactics

□ Transition from experience-driven tactics to operational frameworks grounded in thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and fire growth mechanisms

□ Prioritize firefighter survivability and civilian safety as core values

2. Standardized, Reproducible Training Environments

□ Operate modular curricula that ensure consistent training quality nationwide

□ Accumulate quantified training data such as heat flux, temperature, and ventilation effectiveness

□ Implement the Instructor Standard Program (ISP) to minimize instructional variability

3. Advancement of a Localized Korean CFBT Model through Global Cooperation

□ Joint development of training, experiments, and content with leading experts from Australia, Europe, and the United States

□ Maintain long-term partnerships with international instructors, including Shan Raffel

□ Implement localization strategies reflecting Korean firefighting equipment, building structures, and disaster characteristics

4. Development of Operationally Applicable Live Fire Training Programs

□ Develop tactics applicable to real firegrounds, not limited to container-based training environments

□ Incorporate Korean-specific scenarios such as multi-family housing, apartment buildings, underground spaces, and commercial occupancies

□ Update training scenarios annually based on real incident case analyses

5. Field Research and Data-Driven Decision-Making

□ Systematically convert instructors’ and members’ field experiences into research data

□ Conduct ongoing studies on heat transfer, heat flux measurement, and ventilation effectiveness in fire environments

□ Publish and disseminate evidence-based tactics through collaboration with domestic academic societies, seminars, and training institutions

6. Enhancement of Firefighter Survivability

□ Analyze physiological and thermal stress experienced inside fire compartments

□ Provide survivable strategies for entry, ventilation, and suppression operations

□ Develop practical Survival Protocols aimed at reducing injury and line-of-duty deaths

Key Achievements

■ Development of national standards for live-fire training facilities, operational procedures, and occupational health and safety guidelines for the Korean fire service

■ Adoption of CFBT-KR curricula and courses as formal training programs at multiple Korean fire academies

■ Contribution to the standardization of Korean-style container-based live-fire training facilities and operational models

■ Training of hundreds of professional firefighters and instructors, with thousands of accumulated hours in CFBT, RIT, TIC, and live-fire training exercises

■ Functioning as an Asian CFBT education hub through sustained collaboration with the international CFBT network

■ Expansion of science based fireground tactics through academic presentations and seminars on fire behavior, ventilation, and suppression strategies

Core Members

The Chief Instructors, Instructors, Trainers, and Members of CFBT-KOREA are active across multiple fire service institutions in South Korea, including national and regional fire academies, 119 Special Rescue Units, fire suppression companies, and technical rescue teams.

They collectively specialize in the following professional domains:

■ Thermodynamics and Fire Dynamics Research

■ Development of Tactical Water Application and Entry Techniques

■ Tactical Ventilation (TacVent) and Ventilation Strategy Training

■ Advanced Instructor Program Development and Evaluation

■ Live-Fire Experimentation (Fire Lab) and Heat Flux Research

Founding Instructors

■  Jaeyoung Yang[Jeff] ­ CFBT International Instructor Level 2, Chief Instructor, CFBT-KOREA
Specialist in mental coaching and instructor mindset development
Conducts tactical research based on large-scale disaster and complex incident experience

■ Hyungeun Lee[Parker] ­ CFBT International Instructor Level 2, Chief Instructor, CFBT-KOREA
Specialist in container based live fire training operations and heat transfer analysis
Contributor to the fire behavior education curriculum at the Seoul Fire Academy

■ Joonkyung Kim[ JK ] - CFBT International Instructor Level 2, Chief Instructor, CFBT-KOREA
Research lead for Korean style Tactical Ventilation (TacVent) and thermodynamics based suppression tactics
Lead instructor specializing in fire behavior, airflow path analysis, and ventilation tactics

As of January 2026, CFBT-KOREA comprises 328 registered members, all of whom are current or former fire officers and emergency response professionals who have successfully completed formal training delivered by certified CFBT-KOREA instructors.

These members serve as:

■ Fire academy instructional staff

■ Incident commanders and frontline operational officers

■ Specialized training instructors

■ First-line responders at complex and high-risk disaster scenes

They represent the core workforce driving the dissemination and advancement of the Korean CFBT model, contributing directly to education, operational doctrine, and science-based fireground practice throughout South Korea.