Factory Fires Increasing Annually... Daegu City Provides Prevention Education for Industrial Complex Tenant Companies

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Koo Dae-seon] Daegu City announced on the 14th that due to the frequent occurrence of fires in factories within local industrial complexes recently, it will conduct fire prevention education targeting tenant companies in each industrial complex from the 15th to the 27th to prevent such incidents.

Over the past three years, the number of fires and property damage in factory facilities within local industrial complexes has continuously increased. Most of the industrial complexes in the region are over 20 years old and located close to urban areas, making them vulnerable to large-scale fires.

Daegu City, in cooperation with the Fire Safety Headquarters, will conduct customized fire safety prevention education for each industrial complex to raise fire safety awareness among tenant companies and strengthen their fire response capabilities.

Geomdan Industrial Complex.

Currently, Daegu has 9,550 tenant companies and 112,718 workers employed across 16 general industrial complexes, of which 11 complexes are over 20 years old, accounting for 68% of the total.

Factory fires in Daegu numbered 127 cases in 2020, but increased to 141 in 2021 and 164 in 2022, showing an upward trend each year. Property damage caused by fires also surged from 1.8 billion KRW in 2020 to 3.3 billion KRW in 2021 and 20.2 billion KRW in 2022.

According to a recent analysis by the National Fire Agency on the causes of factory fires, electrical factors such as overloads and short circuits accounted for the highest proportion at 42.6%. Among electrical fires, a high rate was attributed to equipment aging such as insulation deterioration, indicating a correlation between fire causes and the aging of industrial complexes.

Additionally, due to the characteristics of industrial complexes, buildings are old and densely packed, and flammable materials are indiscriminately stored, making them vulnerable to fires. Furthermore, poor management of fire facilities due to low safety awareness among business owners and workers leads to significant damage when fires occur.

In particular, most industrial complexes in Daegu are located adjacent to urban areas, posing a constant risk of secondary disasters such as toxic gas emissions in the event of a fire.

The city plans to enhance fire response capabilities in densely packed factory industrial complexes by conducting urgent fire safety prevention education and strengthening fire safety awareness among tenant companies.

This education will move beyond basic firefighting training to focus on essential safety management topics needed on-site, including fire risk factors and response methods, factory fire prevention tips, inspection methods for firefighting equipment (such as automatic fire detection systems, fire pumps, indoor fire hydrants, sprinklers), gas and electrical fire prevention methods, and revised fire-related laws. After the training, the city will also strengthen organic cooperation systems between local fire stations and industrial complex management agencies to prevent fires in industrial complexes.

An Jung-gon, Director of the Daegu City Economic Bureau, stated, “The purpose of this education is to enhance fire response capabilities in aging urban industrial complexes and raise awareness of fire prevention among tenant companies. However, effective fire prevention is difficult without improved safety awareness among business owners and workers. To minimize large-scale fire damage within industrial complexes, each tenant company must do their utmost to ensure no negligence in fire safety management.”

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