Seoul City Intensifies Safety Inspections on Self-Service Gas Stations

Comprehensive Survey of 24-Hour Operating Businesses

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters announced on the 23rd that "unannounced inspections will be conducted at self-service gas stations to prevent large-scale fires."

According to the Fire and Disaster Headquarters, the number of self-service gas stations, which was 179 in 2019, increased to 265 as of the end of January this year, accounting for 50.1% of all gas stations, surpassing the majority. On the other hand, the number of conventional gas stations has steadily decreased.

As self-service gas stations continue to increase, the risk of safety accidents is relatively higher than that of conventional gas stations because citizens refuel their vehicles themselves rather than gas station attendants.

Accordingly, to proactively prevent fires, unannounced safety inspections will be conducted on self-service gas stations throughout Seoul until March 10. The inspections will be carried out through surprise fire safety checks by joint inspection teams from the Fire and Disaster Headquarters and local fire stations.

Through this inspection, compliance with hazardous material storage and handling standards, adherence to self-service gas station installation standards, and the appointment and working status of hazardous material safety managers will be checked. In particular, for 24-hour self-service gas stations, which account for 31.3% (83 stations) of all self-service gas stations, a full survey will be conducted to focus on verifying the working status of safety managers during vulnerable time periods.

A Fire and Disaster Headquarters official stated, "In the case of self-service gas stations, the role of safety managers who can take initial action in the event of an accident is very important," and added, "We plan to conduct continuous inspections and crackdowns for proactive hazardous material safety management."

According to the Hazardous Materials Safety Control Act, safety managers at self-service gas stations must manage and supervise the safe handling of hazardous materials, and violations may result in fines of up to 10 million won.

Hwang Gisuk, head of the Seoul Fire and Disaster Headquarters, said, "Continuous and meticulous fire safety management is necessary for the increasing number of self-service gas stations," and added, "We will do our best to prevent accidents through effective fire safety measures and strengthened publicity."

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