Gwangmyeong City to Significantly Strengthen Fire Safety Facilities in Apartments

Automatic Rooftop Door Openers to Be Installed in All Complexes by Next Year
Pilotis-Style Parking Structures to Receive Support for Non-Combustible Ceiling Material Replacement and More

Gwangmyeong City in Gyeonggi Province is significantly strengthening fire safety facilities in apartment complexes and other multi-family residential buildings. This measure aims to prevent the recurrence of major disasters like the large-scale fire that occurred in an apartment in Soha-dong in July 2025.

The city will expand support for the installation of 'automatic rooftop door openers' in each apartment complex. These automatic openers remain locked under normal circumstances, but when a fire detector senses a fire, they open automatically to facilitate swift evacuation.

The city has requested the city council to allocate an additional 100 million won in the supplementary budget to install approximately 200 automatic openers. If the budget is secured, the city plans to begin providing this support. The city also intends to include related funding in next year's main budget to complete the installation of automatic openers on rooftop doors of all multi-family residential buildings within its jurisdiction.

Starting next year, the city will prioritize support for installing safety-related facilities in multi-family residential buildings with pilotis-style parking structures. For complexes that apply, the city will provide support for installing fire doors at common entrances, fire detectors, and replacing pilotis ceiling finishing materials with non-combustible materials.

The city also plans to expand the scope of the 'Support Project for Small-Scale Multi-Family Residential Buildings' so that small complexes with fewer than 30 units, which are currently excluded from the 'Multi-Family Residential Safety Facility Installation Support Project,' can receive assistance for replacing combustible finishing materials or installing fire doors.

Separately, the city has proposed several institutional improvements to the Office for Government Policy Coordination, including: ▲ making sprinkler installation mandatory in pilotis-structured parking lots ▲ expanding the mandatory fire insurance coverage to include small-scale multi-family residential buildings ▲ and requiring the installation of fire doors at the main entrances of pilotis-structured buildings such as multi-family residences, officetels, and accommodations with a total floor area of less than 1,000 square meters.

Park Seungwon, Mayor of Gwangmyeong, stated, "We will meticulously address everything from facility support to institutional improvements to create a safer residential environment where everyone can live with peace of mind by building a more robust fire safety network for multi-family residential buildings."

Previously, to enhance fire safety in multi-family residential buildings, the city inspected five apartment complexes with pilotis-structured parking lots and 170 residential buildings last month. According to the city, the inspections revealed issues such as insufficient fire safety equipment and the use of combustible finishing materials in each complex.