KOR
▲ Factory Fire
The government will conduct on-site inspections of 190,000 factories and warehouses nationwide by the end of next year to prevent fire risks in industrial facilities.
Sprinklers will be made mandatory on all floors of factories with a total floor area of 5,000 square meters or more, and financial support and loan programs will be launched to promote safety investments.
The government announced the "Factory Fire Safety Enhancement Measures" during the Emergency Economic Headquarters Meeting and Economic Ministers' Meeting held today (the 31st), presided over by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy Koo Yun-cheol.
This measure comes in response to continuing factory fires resulting in massive casualties, driven by accumulated structural issues such as insufficient safety standards at manufacturing sites and sluggish safety investments.
The government stated it will carry out the first pan-governmental large-scale inspection targeting 190,000 factories and warehouses across the country.
Based on those with a total floor area of 500 square meters or more, this accounts for 26% of the 730,000 such facilities nationwide.
In addition, hazardous material storage facilities and workplaces at high risk of industrial accidents will be inspected even if their area is under 500 square meters, further increasing the target locations.
Following pilot inspections conducted last June and July, the main inspections will be carried out sequentially in three phases according to fire risk levels from September of this year to December of next year.
Utilizing not only personnel from fire stations and local governments but also private and young experts, the inspections will comprehensively examine fire vulnerabilities and illegal conditions in construction, firefighting, and safety.
Violations such as illegal extensions identified during the inspection process will be subject to immediate corrective action, and the results of the inspection will be computerized and systematically managed.
Fire safety standards will be overhauled across the board.
Hazardous material facilities currently using semi-non-combustible exterior materials will be required to use non-combustible exterior materials, and the installation of intelligent fire detectors, which have fewer malfunctions than regular detectors, will also be made mandatory.
Firefighting facility standards will be strengthened by expanding the scope of mandatory sprinkler installations by the end of the year.
Currently, sprinklers apply only to floors that are on the 4th floor or higher with a floor area of 1,000 square meters or more on that specific floor, but in the future, they will be required on all floors of factories with a total floor area of 5,000 square meters or more.
A specialized inspection business system for hazardous material facilities, where inspection businesses equipped with technical capabilities and equipment perform hazardous material inspections, is also planned to be introduced by 2028.
Incentives including financial, monetary, and tax support will be strengthened for safety investments.
A new safety investment promotion "Zero Fire" subsidy and loan package will be established.
A financial support (subsidy) project totaling 200 billion won over five years will be established to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized enterprises in purchasing fire and explosion prevention equipment and items, alongside a "Zero Fire and Safety Investment" loan program (tentative name) totaling 1.25 trillion won over five years.
For SMEs, a financing program favoring loan limits and support frequencies will be operated with a total scale of 250 billion won from 2027 to 2031, while mid-sized enterprises will receive secondary interest compensation (2.0%p, up to 2 billion won per enterprise) for commercial bank loans of the same scale over the same period.
Automatic extinguishing devices will be supplied step-by-step to approximately 20,000 locations centered around high-risk workplaces from 2027 to 2031, and research and development (R&D) for fire prevention, such as artificial intelligence (AI)-based risk early warning systems, will also be supported.
The government stated it will swiftly supply a total of 3 trillion won in policy financing to support workplace safety management and industrial accident prevention activities.
This consists of 1.5 trillion won from the Korea Development Bank, 1 trillion won from the Industrial Bank of Korea, and 500 billion won from the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund.
Fire insurance discounts will be provided to factories equipped with fire safety devices.
Refunds for fire extinguishing facility discount amounts will also be promoted even after concluding insurance contracts.
As for tax support, advanced safety technologies utilizing AI and robots will be designated as new growth and source technologies to increase benefits for facility investments, and accelerated depreciation for safety equipment investments by SMEs (shortening the standard useful life by 50%) will be introduced.
These are the so-called tripartite tax sets to promote fire prevention facility investments.
In addition, a post-inspection system for buildings will be introduced to allow licensing authorities to recheck for violations after a certain period passes following use approval.
In connection with the first main inspection (September to December of this year), an intensive reporting period for factory fire prevention (workplace safety) will be operated on the Safety Sinmungo portal, and the scale of reward money for excellent reports through Safety Sinmungo will be significantly increased.
Measures are also being promoted to pay up to 30% of fines and penalties as a reward when fines and penalties are imposed and recovered based on reports by internal public interest whistleblowers.
(Photo provided by Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Metropolitan Fire Headquarters, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.
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