"Is It Safe to Evacuate to the Rooftop During a Fire?"... Gyeonggi Fire Department Provides Information on Rooftop Exit Doors

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] A program has been developed that allows residents to see at a glance where the rooftop access doors are installed in their apartment complex and whether they are open by simply searching the apartment name.

The Gyeonggi-do Fire and Disaster Headquarters announced on the 18th that they have developed a "Rooftop Access Door Information Provision" website for apartment complexes.

By accessing the Gyeonggi Provincial Government or fire station website and clicking the relevant banner, users are directed to the rooftop access door information website.

By entering the apartment name in the search box, users can view eight types of information: ▲whether a rooftop access door is installed ▲location of the access door ▲rooftop evacuation space ▲area of the evacuation space ▲door open status ▲presence of guide lights ▲material of the rooftop access door ▲roof type.

This website was developed following a fire incident in an apartment in Gunpo last December, where two residents trying to escape by moving to the upper floors mistakenly thought the elevator machine room, which is one floor higher than the rooftop, was the rooftop and suffered fatal consequences. This incident highlighted the need to actively inform residents about the location of rooftop access doors in apartment complexes.

From October last year to February this year, the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters conducted the nation’s first comprehensive survey of rooftop access doors, covering all 6,618 apartment complexes and 41,621 buildings in the province over four months.

The survey found that 35,124 buildings, or 84.4% of the total, had rooftop evacuation spaces. Among these, 19,126 buildings (54.5%) had rooftop access doors located on the top floor, 15,549 buildings (44.3%) had them on the floor just below the top floor, and 30 buildings had them two floors below the top floor.

Additionally, the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters plans to produce promotional materials containing information about rooftop access door locations to help apartment residents evacuate quickly in emergencies and provide these to all apartment management offices in the province.

Lee Sang-gyu, head of the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters, stated, "By providing information on the opening and location of rooftop access doors in apartment complexes, we expect residents to be able to evacuate quickly in the event of a fire."

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