"No Second Icheon Fire" ... Ministry of Land Strengthens Building Material Standards

On the afternoon of the 6th, at the joint memorial altar set up at the Icheon Logistics Warehouse Construction Site Fire Joint Memorial Service held at Seohui Youth Culture Center in Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, a bereaved family member is crying uncontrollably. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] Following the fire accident at a logistics warehouse in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, which resulted in 38 deaths, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) has decided to strengthen standards for building materials. Additionally, institutional measures will be established to ensure that clients and construction companies prioritize safety above all else.

On the 8th, MOLIT held the first meeting of the 2nd Construction Safety Innovation Committee to prepare fundamental measures for preventing fire accidents at construction sites and announced plans to implement these measures. Compared to the 1st Innovation Committee, which was active until January this year, this committee includes additional experts on fire accidents, such as those specializing in building materials.

This meeting focused on supplementing institutional measures to prevent large-scale human-caused disasters like the Icheon logistics warehouse fire. The Innovation Committee decided to strengthen management of combustible building materials, identified as a major cause of the recent fire, and operations that generate highly explosive volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Although MOLIT has continuously enhanced fire performance standards for building finishes and insulation materials, there were limitations in managing internal insulation materials due to the absence of explicit regulations. Going forward, fire performance standards for internal insulation materials will be established, and the use of combustible sandwich panels will be completely banned in warehouses and factories. Furthermore, measures to prevent the generation of VOCs in poorly ventilated spaces such as basements will also be considered.

MOLIT will establish institutional measures to ensure that clients, construction companies, and supervisors prioritize safety. Monitoring will be strengthened to prevent dangerous work from being forced to meet completion deadlines, and the responsibilities and roles of supervisors will be enhanced to prevent construction companies from neglecting safety in favor of cost savings.

In the event of an accident, blind spots will be eliminated so that subcontractor workers can also benefit from workers' compensation insurance, and the possibility of having clients share insurance costs will be examined. In particular, MOLIT plans to significantly expand the Regional Building Safety Centers, which are currently installed in only 30 local governments nationwide, by mandating their establishment in metropolitan governments and large cities with populations over 500,000. MOLIT also added that it will promote the enactment of a Special Construction Safety Act that comprehensively regulates the authority, roles, responsibilities, and penalties related to safety management from the construction planning stage through the construction process.

Minister Kim Hyunmi of MOLIT stated, "This logistics warehouse fire accident is very regrettable as it closely resembles the frozen warehouse fire accident that occurred in 2008," and emphasized, "We will eradicate the practice of prioritizing cost over safety and root out the recurrence of accidents typical of developing countries."

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