Seodaemun-gu Introduces 'Life Protection 8-Item Set' to Prevent Semi-basement Tragedies

Safety Management Service Applying IoT Technology to 300 Households

Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, will operate a smart safety management service from this month as a flood and fire safety measure for semi-basement households. A Seodaemun-gu Office employee is test-operating a flood detection sensor. (Photo by Seodaemun-gu Office)

"Fire outbreak! Fire outbreak! A fire has occurred. Please evacuate to a safe place." "Flooding has been detected. Please evacuate to a safe place and check the flooding location."

As the flood detection sensor is submerged in water, a blue warning light flashes while an urgent voice alerts about the flooding. When the fire detector activates, a red warning light along with a fire alert message spreads throughout the room. Following a series of accidents where residents living in semi-basement homes died due to flooding and fire, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul (Mayor Lee Seongheon) has introduced the 'Semi-basement Household Life-Saving 8-piece Set.' The official name is the 'Seodaemun-gu Semi-basement Household Smart Safety Management Service.'

This service, installed in 300 households within Seodaemun-gu and fully operational from this month, applies wireless smart sensor home network technology to protect vulnerable semi-basement residents from flooding, fire, carbon monoxide leaks, and more.

A total of eight devices are placed or attached inside the semi-basement homes, on walls, and ceilings. These include fire sensors, flood sensors, carbon monoxide sensors, temperature sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) fire extinguishers, voice-guided warning lights, as well as LTE IoT routers and gateways for LTE communication. When danger is detected and sensors sound an alarm, the situation is transmitted to the Seodaemun-gu Disaster Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (control center) via a high-speed internet network, and disaster alert messages and evacuation contacts are sent to family members of the semi-basement households who have pre-registered their contact information.

The flood sensor installed on the wall detects flooding above 0.5 cm from the floor. Smoke-detecting fire sensors, carbon dioxide sensors, and temperature sensors are attached to the ceiling. The warning lights receive detection information from the gateway and loudly alert about the danger.

Installation and operational communication fees are completely free. To introduce the Semi-basement Household Smart Safety Management Service, Seodaemun-gu invested 300 million KRW from the district budget and added 200 million KRW from the city budget to build servers, and provided free installation to 300 semi-basement households in the district that applied for the service. After a trial operation last month, full operation began this month, and there has already been a harrowing yet heart-relieving case.

Park (56, male), living alone in Hong-eun-dong, experienced a near-fire accident on the 2nd of this month while boiling barley tea over a gas stove. When the kettle started to burn, the fire sensor responded, the warning light sounded, and thanks to the emergency contact from the district control center, the fire was avoided.

Seodaemun-gu received recognition for this service by winning the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award at the 'Regional Informatization Research Project Presentation Contest' early last month. However, the district office's biggest concern is promotion. The service needs to be widely known so that residents take interest and apply, but relying solely on district office staff efforts is challenging. Given the high proportion of elderly single-person households in semi-basement homes, understanding information and communication technology (ICT) or how to operate the devices is not easy, which is both a reality and a challenge.

Moon Byung-gil, a smart information officer at Seodaemun-gu, said, "We will actively promote the service so that many semi-basement households can benefit, and through continuous monitoring, analyze the preventive effects to ensure this project achieves positive outcomes and expands."

Meanwhile, there are a total of 202,000 semi-basement households across Seoul. Gwanak-gu and Gangbuk-gu have 16,200 and 14,100 households respectively, and Jungnang-gu, Seongbuk-gu, Eunpyeong-gu, Gwangjin-gu, and Dongjak-gu each have over 10,000 households. Seodaemun-gu has 8,700 semi-basement households.