Urgent On-Site Inspection for Fire Prevention at Seoul Construction Sites Until the 8th

Welding and Cutting Fire Safety Handling and Temporary Firefighting Facility Inspection Conducted

The Seoul Fire and Disaster Safety Headquarters visited a construction site in Seongbuk-gu on the 3rd for an on-site inspection.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Fire and Disaster Headquarters announced on the 7th that following the first round of "Emergency On-site Safety Inspections for Fire Prevention" conducted from the 1st to the 5th for construction sites with a total floor area of over 2,000㎡, a second round of on-site inspections will be carried out on the 7th and 8th.

After concerns about fires at construction sites increased due to the fire at a logistics warehouse construction site in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province on the 29th of last month, which resulted in multiple casualties, this emergency on-site inspection aims to eliminate and block fire hazards during work processes at construction sites in advance and to take measures to prevent fires.

Accordingly, the Fire and Disaster Headquarters first conducts thorough on-site verification and education regarding the "Seoul Fire Prevention Ordinance" for construction site managers (site supervisors), and instructs that during welding and cutting work, which have a high risk of fire, a fire extinguisher must be carried and the work supervised by the on-site safety manager. Additionally, the installation status and proper functioning of temporary fire-fighting facilities at construction sites will be checked and inspected on-site.

According to Seoul City, there were a total of 452 fires at construction sites in the Seoul area over the past three years, resulting in 3 deaths and 20 injuries, totaling 23 casualties. By cause, negligence accounted for the majority with 353 cases (78.1%), followed by electrical causes with 49 cases (10.8%), mechanical causes with 7 cases (1.5%), chemical causes with 2 cases (0.4%), and unknown causes with 39 cases (8.6%).

Analyzing the 353 cases of negligence, which was the most common cause of fire, negligence during welding, cutting, and grinding processes accounted for 184 cases (52.1%), more than half. This was followed by cigarette butts with 69 cases (19.5%), leaving embers, sparks, or fire sources unattended with 54 cases (15.2%), placing combustible materials nearby with 21 cases (5.9%), and other negligence with 8 cases (2.3%).

A Fire and Disaster Headquarters official explained, "Most fires occurring at construction sites can be prevented if workers pay attention," adding, "In particular, besides the welding and cutting workers, one additional supervisor should be designated to monitor sparks scattering around."

Shin Yeol-woo, head of the Seoul Fire and Disaster Headquarters, stated, "To prevent fire damage at construction sites, special attention from site managers and workers is necessary," and urged, "Please thoroughly manage safety during the installation of temporary fire-fighting facilities and during welding and cutting work."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.