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By Kim Se-jeong
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) said Wednesday that it will carry out emergency safety inspections of apartment buildings in the city in the wake of last weekend's fatal fire at a residential unit in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province.
According to SMG, the inspection will run through Feb. 3 and almost 5,000 buildings will come under scrutiny.
"This is to prevent a possible disaster like that in Uijeongbu," an official said.
In Saturday's accident in Uijeongbu, the fire burnt down three apartment buildings, killing four people and injuring almost 150. Most victims suffered from burns or toxic gas inhalation.
Buildings with small-sized one or two room units are a popular choice of living in Seoul and metropolitan areas thanks to their convenience and low rents. The former Lee Myung-bak government allowed these types of buildings to be constructed to relieve the financial burden on young people, but the eased regulations resulted in negligence regarding safety.
The city said the priority of the inspection will be to check emergency exits, fireproof materials, the distance between buildings, fire partitions, insurance and fire truck access.
The SMG said it will also look into whether buildings have sprinkler systems. Fire safety experts say more lives could have been saved these were in the Uijeongbu buildings.
Buildings materials will also come under a tight examination. In the Uijeongbu case , the exterior walls of the buildings were coated with a Styrofoam and cement mix, which allowed the fire to spread quickly.
Small alleys and illegal parking were also blamed as they delayed access to the buildings for fire trucks, increasing the death toll.
According to the Ministry of Public Safety and Security, fire trucks cannot run on some 1,600 sections of roads nationwide because they are either too narrow or illegally parked cars or other facilities prevent them from passing.
About 60 percent of such sections are in residential areas, followed by old commercial areas, such as traditional markets. Current building regulations require the main road in a district to be at least 4 meters wide to ensure fire truck access. It was 6 meters until 2009 when the Lee administration eased the rules.
