Yongsan-gu, Joint Safety Inspection of New Huam Apartment

Safety Inspection of New Huam Apartment Designated as a Type 3 Facility on the 3rd
Joint Inspection with External Experts and Residents Following Safety Check Results During Thawing Season
Annual Safety Inspections Conducted for 121 Apartment Complexes and 486 Buildings During Vulnerable Periods

Yongsan-gu, Seoul (District Mayor Park Hee-young) conducted a safety inspection on the New Huam Apartment, designated as a Type 3 facility, on the 3rd.

This emergency safety inspection of aging multi-family housing was jointly carried out with external experts to protect residents' safety and property rights, ahead of an additional detailed safety inspection following the thaw season safety check last month.

Due to the nature of apartments and other multi-family housing, where many households are densely concentrated, safety management to identify and address risk factors in advance is of utmost importance.

The multi-family housing inspected that day was the New Huam Apartment (426 Huam-dong), located in Huam-dong. It is an aging multi-family housing complex consisting of one building (5 floors above ground) with 29 households, completed in 1973, and currently managed as a Type 3 facility (Grade D).

Type 3 facilities refer to small-scale facilities that are not classified as Type 1 or 2 facilities under the "Special Act on the Safety and Maintenance of Facilities," but have a high risk of disaster occurrence or require continuous management for prevention.

About ten people participated in this joint inspection, including district officials, external experts (architectural structural engineers) appointed as safety management advisors, and resident representatives. They checked the overall condition of the aging multi-family housing, including ▲ground subsidence of the foundation (retaining walls, embankments) ▲changes in structural members ▲crack occurrence status ▲damage status of members.

In particular, special attention was given to the risk of overturning due to vertical cracks in the dust chute caused by building aging, which was pointed out during the thaw season safety inspection.

Park Hee-young, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, who participated in the joint safety inspection, said, “While Type 1 and 2 facilities above a certain scale undergo regular safety inspections, smaller facilities have become blind spots in safety management. We will designate aging small-scale facilities requiring safety management as Type 3 facilities and manage them intensively.”

The district conducts safety inspections targeting 121 multi-family housing complexes and 486 buildings in the area annually, focusing on vulnerable periods such as the thaw season, rainy season, and winter.

During last month’s thaw season safety inspection, 108 complexes and 446 buildings conducted self-inspections through their management entities, while 13 complexes and 40 buildings underwent joint inspections with external experts to strengthen safety management as Type 3 facilities.

Joint inspections have been completed for four multi-family housing complexes and nine buildings designated as Type 3 facilities in the area. Based on the inspection results, New Huam Apartment was classified as a target for detailed safety inspection, which is scheduled to be carried out by July this year.

Park Hee-young, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, emphasized the importance of safety, stating, “The safety of residents must be the top priority. We will do our best to ensure that residents can enjoy a comfortable and safe living environment through safety inspections of multi-family housing closely related to their daily lives.”