The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced today (July 15) that it will pre-announce amendments to the Enforcement Decree of the Building Act and the Rules on Standards for Evacuation and Fire Prevention Structures of Buildings until August 24. These amendments include easing standards for fire compartmentation between floors in utility piping areas of semiconductor plants.

Semiconductor plants frequently add or relocate utility pipes due to changes in manufacturing processes. Previously, this posed difficulties as it required the demolition and reconstruction of fire compartmentation, which consists of concrete floors, each time such changes were made.

Reflecting the characteristics of semiconductor plants, the amendment includes a provision to ease the mandatory installation of fire compartmentation between floors if sprinklers that provide fire safety performance equivalent to or higher than such compartmentation are installed.

Furthermore, the recognition of quality for new building material products, which was previously limited to fire-resistant structures, has been expanded to include fire doors, fire shutters, fire-stop systems, and composite materials. This allows for the establishment of recognition standards for new products developed in these four categories.

The amendment also includes improvements to installation standards that allow for the omission of additional fire doors when installing composite fire shutters, which combine fire doors and automatic fire shutters to help improve space efficiency in large shopping centers and similar facilities.

Jeong Seung-soo, Director of the Building Safety Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, stated, "We have reorganized the system to reasonably reflect changes in industrial sites and new technologies in building regulations while ensuring fire safety in buildings."

(Photo: Provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Yonhap News)