9.3% of Large Construction Sites in Gyeonggi-do Violate Fire Safety Regulations

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] It has been revealed that one out of every ten large construction sites in Gyeonggi Province is in a 'safety management' blind spot.

The Gyeonggi Fire and Disaster Headquarters announced on the 9th that, as a result of conducting special safety inspections on 1,135 large construction sites with a total floor area of over 3,000㎡ in the province from May 11 to June 25, 9.3% (105 sites) were rated as poor, and 130 legal violations were detected among them.

According to the main findings, the A logistics center construction site in the province did not assign fire safety technicians on site, stored unauthorized hazardous materials, and failed to report subcontracting contracts for fire facilities and commencement notifications. Accordingly, the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters booked the construction company and the construction company representative and imposed fines and administrative sanctions.

Another B hazardous material storage and processing facility construction site was booked for installing fire facilities without registering as a fire facility construction business and operating without a license.

The Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters conducted guidance and supervision of fire-related companies and detected 67 cases (83 violations), including 9 cases of neglecting to report registration changes and 5 cases of failing to meet registration standards, imposing fines and administrative sanctions.

Additionally, a fire safety patrol crackdown team was deployed targeting 674 construction sites with a total floor area of less than 3,000㎡, detecting 26 violations at 25 sites, including 19 cases of failure to install temporary fire facilities and 4 cases of failure to assign technicians.

This fire safety measure was implemented to establish fundamental improvement plans to prevent recurrence following the warehouse fire in Icheon that occurred last April.

Lee Hyung-cheol, head of the Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters, emphasized, "Along with special inspections, we are proposing to the central government to strengthen the standards for installing temporary fire facilities at construction sites, some of which have been reflected, and we are also promoting system improvements. We will do our best to manage safety, including safety guidance and patrol crackdowns at construction sites in the second half of the year, to prevent large-scale fires and ensure that similar fires never occur again in the province."

The Gyeonggi Fire Headquarters will also conduct safety inspections in the second half of the year on construction sites with a progress rate of over 50% and on refrigerated and cold storage warehouses using urethane foam.