Seoul City Selects 40 Projects in 3 Categories for '2022 Seoul Creative Awards'

Selected as Best Citizen Proposal: Improvement of Proper Evacuation Guidance During Public Housing Fires

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 26th the selection of a total of 40 projects that contributed to the development of city administration through proposals received from Seoul citizens and public officials over the past year (September 2021 to August 2022) as the 2022 Seoul Creative Awards.

From October 26 to November 11, the city received a total of 105 nominations for the Seoul Creative Awards from citizens, Seoul city officials, and district government officials. The winners were selected through a judging committee composed of external experts in fire safety, transportation, and public officials.

In the Creative Proposal Citizen category, Mr. Kim Hwajung’s proposal titled ‘Improvement of Proper Evacuation Guidance in Public Housing Fires’ was awarded the Grand Prize. The proposal stated, "Currently, Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation (SH) attaches notices inside elevators in both sale and rental apartments advising residents to use stairs in case of fire. However, in actual fire situations, residents tend to panic, forget evacuation procedures, and inadvertently use elevators. Therefore, similar to overseas cases, notices instructing the use of stairs during fires should be attached outside the elevator, in hallways, or on elevator external control buttons to help residents easily understand evacuation procedures."

In the Creative Proposal Public Official category, Fire Lieutenant Oh Changhoon of the 119 Special Rescue Unit Fire Aviation Team was awarded the Grand Prize for his proposal titled ‘Proposal for Preventing Penetration Accidents of Firefighting Boots.’ The proposal suggested, "To establish safety measures against firefighters stepping on nails or similar objects causing penetration injuries at fire scenes, develop safety insoles with a dedicated puncture-resistant plate to be applied to existing firefighting boots." This is expected to prevent safety accidents among firefighters nationwide.

In the Proposal Implementation category, which awards those who actively execute proposals from citizens or public officials, the Grand Prize was awarded to Fire Captain Lee Giju, Fire Sergeant Yoo Youngho, and Fire Lieutenant Kim Hyojung of Dongjak Fire Station for their joint execution of ‘Installation of Safety Covers to Prevent Fire Hydrant Manhole Fall Accidents.’ There was a proposal stating, "There is a risk of pedestrians falling into manholes left open when using underground fire hydrants during fires, so countermeasures are necessary." Accordingly, Fire Captain Lee Giju and two others at Dongjak Fire Station developed and applied a portable fire hydrant safety cover that can be installed on all underground fire hydrants, is easy to store and mount, and can withstand loads over 200kg. This achievement is expected to prevent manhole fall accidents among citizens and create an environment where firefighters can focus on fire suppression.

The Grand Prize in the Innovation Policy category was awarded to Officer Lee Youngmin of the Urban Transportation Office’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Division for executing ‘Revitalization of Abandoned Bicycle Recycling.’ To solve the chronic problem of over 15,000 abandoned bicycles annually, the project established the nation’s first online sales system for recycled bicycles using a private used bicycle specialized trading platform, created an offline dedicated sales space within large marts to improve citizen accessibility, and donated hundreds of recycled bicycles to vulnerable groups.

Meanwhile, starting next year, Seoul plans to strengthen the citizen proposal system and expand the scale and scope of the Seoul Creative Awards to encourage active citizen proposals and innovative project execution by public officials. Accordingly, the name of the recent online citizen proposal platform was also revamped to ‘Sangsangdaero Seoul’ (Imagine Seoul).

Choi Wonseok, Director of Public Relations Planning, stated, “For Seoul to develop into an attractive city, the creativity and imagination of citizens and public officials must be actively reflected in city administration. We will expand the citizen proposal system and the scale of the Seoul Creative Awards to ensure that good proposals are quickly turned into policies.”

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