Preventing 'Carbon Dioxide Suffocation'... Expanding Fire Extinguishing Agents That Put Out Fires

Ministry of Employment and Labor and Fire Agency Announce Improvement Plan for Carbon Dioxide Fire Extinguishing Systems

Strengthening Obligations for Installation of Carbon Dioxide Detectors and Alarms

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the National Fire Agency announced on the 19th that they have decided to expand the scope of fire extinguishing agents to include low-risk agents such as inert gas systems for extinguishing fires in hazardous material storage areas within buildings, such as gasoline. This is to reduce industrial accident deaths caused by carbon dioxide leakage. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, over the past 10 years from 2011 to last year, 14 workers have died due to carbon dioxide fire extinguishing systems (with 10 incidents reported).

First, measures have been taken to allow the use of low-risk extinguishing agents in indoor hazardous material storage areas such as diesel and gasoline. Currently, only carbon dioxide can be used. This is expected to increase the possibility of fire suppression. Additionally, oxygen or carbon dioxide detectors and alarms must be installed in protected areas where the evacuation distance to the entrance or emergency exit is 10 meters or more, and in fire extinguisher storage rooms holding more than 100 extinguishers weighing 45 kg each.

The National Fire Agency will also consider long-term plans to install heat or motion detectors within protected areas to prevent the fire extinguishing system from activating if a person is detected. Furthermore, the Ministry of Employment and Labor plans to strengthen safety management regulations requiring workers to close manual valves installed on carbon dioxide supply pipes and insert safety pins into activation devices while working within protected areas.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the National Fire Agency will promptly proceed with revising related regulations and issuing detailed guidelines to ensure that these system improvement measures are implemented on-site as quickly as possible. Kim Gyuseok, Director of Industrial Accident Prevention and Supervision Policy at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, said, "Through these system improvements, safety regulations regarding carbon dioxide fire extinguishing systems, which were previously insufficient, will be supplemented, and workplace safety and health measures will be secured to protect the precious lives of workers." Hwang Gisuk, Director of Fire Prevention at the National Fire Agency, stated, "We will continue to operate the carbon dioxide fire extinguishing systems through organic cooperation between the two ministries to maintain their original function as fire extinguishing systems, rather than causing industrial accident deaths."

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