Seoul City Implements 'Emergency Fire Safety Measures' at 131 Sales Facilities Including Large Outlet Stores

Immediate Notification to Relevant Authorities Upon Detection of Illegal Activities Such as Storage of Items in Underground Parking Lots During Surprise Inspections

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Fire and Disaster Headquarters announced on the 29th that it will implement emergency safety measures for 131 large outlet stores and other sales facilities in Seoul in relation to the fire in the underground parking lot of Hyundai Outlet in Daejeon. On the 26th, a fire broke out in the underground first-floor parking lot of Hyundai Premium Outlet in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon Metropolitan City, causing multiple casualties.

This safety measure is urgently implemented to strengthen fire prevention and safety management for sales facilities with underground loading docks or parking lots in large outlet stores in Seoul. Large sales facilities have many stored items and large scale, and due to high ceiling heights and large equipment such as conveyors, fire suppression is more difficult compared to general buildings.

In particular, if the fire is not extinguished early as in the case of the underground parking lot fire at Hyundai Outlet, the combustible materials stored inside ignite and the fire rapidly grows, often leading to large-scale casualties.

Accordingly, through this measure, which will be implemented from the 29th to October 28th, the relevant fire stations will conduct on-site inspections to urgently check the safety management status of the targets and the implementation of their own evacuation safety plans, as well as conduct surprise inspections and safety consulting. The targets include 131 large sales facilities with underground loading docks or parking lots, including 11 large outlet stores.

Fire safety consulting will be conducted by responsible executives at the team leader level or higher from each fire station with extensive experience in fire suppression and consulting, who will visit the site to identify risk factors in underground parking lots and loading areas, and guide the maintenance status of fire-fighting facilities and evacuation/fire prevention facilities. Surprise inspections will be conducted without prior notice for large sales facilities in Seoul, focusing on the management of important fire-fighting facilities and the proper maintenance of evacuation and fire prevention facilities.

In addition, the autonomous safety management status of related parties will be checked, including verifying the appropriateness of the contents of reports on the results of self-inspections of fire-fighting facilities. Choi Tae-young, head of the Seoul Fire and Disaster Headquarters, said, “We will promptly carry out fire safety inspections of large sales facilities used by many citizens,” and added, “We will take thorough measures to proactively eliminate fire vulnerabilities and ensure that fire-fighting facilities are properly managed.”