Gyeonggi Province, following a comprehensive inspection of lithium-handling businesses related to the Hwaseong factory fire accident, is launching a second emergency special audit on chemical substance handling workplaces.
On the 4th, Gyeonggi Province announced that the Audit Office and the Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters will jointly conduct a special audit from the 8th to the 19th of this month on a total of 40 workplaces in Siheung and Pyeongtaek cities. These workplaces include chemical, rubber, and plastic manufacturing factories with fewer than 300 employees, classified as Grade 2 specific fire safety targets, and that have not undergone fire inspections within the past year.
The 40 selected workplaces are those vulnerable to fire and located in labor-intensive industries that have been overlooked in inspections, identified by Gyeonggi Province’s facility sector officials and fire safety experts.
The main inspection items include ▲firefighting facility management ▲initial response system ▲emergency escape route inspection ▲illegal building extensions and changes in use ▲damage, deformation, and cracks in buildings ▲hazard factors around the workplace such as retaining walls, drainage, and slopes.
Choi Eun-soon, Auditor of Gyeonggi Province, stated, "This emergency joint special audit was conducted with the intention that there should be no departmental barriers in the safety sector," adding, "This audit will be in the form of consulting to raise awareness of safety complacency and to check the basic safety facilities that workplaces should have, rather than focusing on detecting violations."
Meanwhile, Governor Kim Dong-yeon of Gyeonggi Province, after receiving a report on the joint inspection plan for lithium workplaces at an emergency countermeasure meeting on the 27th of last month, urged, "We must act proactively for the safety of residents," and requested, "Even if the management authority for other hazardous chemicals and dangerous materials lies with the government, please take the initiative to identify risk factors."
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