Gyeonggi-do Fire Department Prepares Winter Fire Safety Measures... Emergency Inspection of Facilities Over 20 Years Old

Gyeonggi-do Fire and Disaster Headquarters Exterior View

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The Gyeonggi-do Fire and Disaster Headquarters will implement the '2022 Winter Fire Safety Measures' for four months from November to February next year to reduce casualties caused by large-scale fires.

According to the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters on the 6th, a total of 12,949 winter fires (December to February of the following year) occurred in the Gyeonggi area over the past five years from 2017 to 2021, resulting in 111 deaths and 703 injuries. Property damage was estimated at 348.52136 billion KRW.

The most common fire locations were residential facilities at 25.7%, followed by industrial facilities at 20.6%. By cause, fires in residential facilities were mostly due to carelessness at 49.4%, while electrical causes accounted for 31.1% in factory facilities.

Accordingly, the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters established 27 key tasks under 7 major strategies for winter fire safety measures and decided to implement them over four months from November to February next year.

The 7 major strategies set by the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters are ▲strengthening safety management of fire-vulnerable targets ▲eliminating fire risk factors ▲establishing a safety environment in daily life ▲improving fire safety environments for socially vulnerable and disaster-vulnerable facilities ▲strengthening fire safety management through system improvements ▲public fire safety promotion activities ▲and special policies.

As a key task, joint inspections and on-site administrative guidance will be conducted targeting large-scale fire-prone places such as industrial complexes and warehouse facilities over 20 years old, and large construction sites.

Additionally, fire evacuation spaces will be actively encouraged to be installed in facilities for evacuation-vulnerable groups such as elderly care facilities and residential facilities for the disabled, and evacuation-centered education and training, including drills on the use of evacuation and rescue equipment, will be conducted.

Furthermore, to prevent casualties from frequent winter house fires, the distribution of residential fire safety equipment will be expanded in fire-vulnerable households such as semi-basement houses, and education and promotion for the safe use of electrical products such as electric mats in winter will be strengthened.

Cho Sun-ho, head of the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters, said, "We will thoroughly analyze the causes of fires in high-risk targets to prevent large-scale winter fires and prioritize the safety of residents by promoting proactive safety management." He added, "We ask residents to follow safety rules at home and work to ensure a safe winter."

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