20150113 Korea Helpless against fire
Korea Jan 13 2015 “Apartment houses”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Helpless against fire
Updated: 2015-01-13 17:11
The 10-story building where the Uijeongbu fire started was called the Daebong Green Apartment, and looked like the genuine collective living arrangement that Koreans have loved for so long.
But in effect, it was “urban-style” living quarters that tend to be smaller in size and in the number of units and these buildings are usually built in commercial districts with laxer rules. This type of housing was adopted in 2009 by the then- Lee Myung-bak administration to respond to the shortage of rental housing.
In the construction of these housing units, the rules are more lax in parking facilities, and the distance between the buildings can be much closer than normal.
The one in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, was built in a commercial district and was not subject to the regulation that states collective housing units must stand at a distance of two to six meters apart. The fire at Daebong green apartment took just over an hour to engulf another 10-story building and a 15-story one, because they were less than 2 meters away.
Another reason that the fire spread so fast in Uijeongbu is that the builders did not use flame-retardant exterior materials. Korean construction laws require strict compliance only in the case of buildings 30 stories or higher.
Lack of proper parking facilities meant that firefighters in Uijeongbu wasted about 10 minutes trying to gain access to the origin of fire because the roads were cluttered with parked cars.
The construction of these new residences increased supply 100-fold in just four years in Seoul alone, but it also means the buildings are vulnerable to fire as seen in the Uijeongbu case. The potential weaknesses of these units were foreseen even at the outset in particular with regard to the minimum parking requirement, but it only becomes an issue of importance after a tragedy.
So on Monday, the government hurriedly put forth plans to revise the current laws to ensure all tall buildings have flame-retardant exterior material and sprinklers. However, such revisions will not be retroactive on the 300,000 existing and planned housing units.
While deregulation is considered a key solution to take the Korean economy a notch higher from where it is today, policymakers need to think twice before loosening regulations that may ultimately cost human lives.
Local governments Tuesday are scurrying to conduct emergency safety checks on urban housing units. Along with them, the residents themselves must double-check on the state of preparedness of their buildings in case of fire or other emergencies.
Web Source: Korea times
http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2015/01/137_171650.html