Seoul Fire Department's 'Fire Safety Priority Period' Until February Next Year

The Seoul Fire and Disaster Headquarters announced on the 25th that it will designate the period from next month to February of next year as the 'Winter Fire Safety Focus Period' and implement safety measures for proactive fire prevention.

In the past five years, 7,648 fires occurred during the winter season (November to February of the following year), accounting for 27.6% of the total 27,684 fires during the entire period. Casualties caused by winter fires amounted to 532, which is 31.1% of all fire casualties. The most common locations of winter fires were residential facilities such as apartment complexes at 39.5%, followed by multi-use facilities like restaurants at 15.0%, and sales and office facilities at 12.9%.

Reflecting the characteristics of winter fire damage, Seoul Fire will focus on 16 tasks under 4 strategies aimed at reducing human casualties.

The four strategies are ▲ Strengthening safety measures for vulnerable disaster groups ▲ Preventing residential fires and reducing casualties ▲ Enhancing fire prevention for high-risk large-scale fire targets ▲ Protecting citizens' lives through strengthened on-site response capabilities.

First, joint inspections with related agencies will be conducted on fire-vulnerable residential facilities such as jjokbang (small rooms), gosiwon (boarding houses), and residential vinyl houses. Fire station chiefs and local center heads will be designated as responsible officers to eliminate vulnerabilities in advance and conduct safety education simultaneously. Safety management will also be strengthened for evacuation-vulnerable facilities such as nursing hospitals.

To reduce casualties in homes, fire safety consulting will be provided for old apartments without sprinkler systems or corridor-style apartments with installed windows. For apartment complexes equipped with evacuation spaces, customized evacuation safety plans will be developed and evacuation methods will be intensively promoted.

Since fires in traditional markets often cause greater damage due to delayed initial response during late-night hours, AI-based fire patrol robots will be deployed on a trial basis at night to handle patrols, initial response, and customized evacuation guidance.

Hwang Gi-seok, head of the Seoul Fire and Disaster Headquarters, said, "We will do our best to prevent large-scale fires by implementing thorough fire safety measures ahead of the winter season," adding, "In particular, we will actively carry out field-centered administration to reduce human casualties."

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