As four people were killed or injured in a fire at Eunma Apartments in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, concerns are growing over the safety of aging apartment complexes. That is because aging apartments built before fire safety standards for buildings were strengthened are in a "fire safety gap," with no obligation to install sprinklers, which are key to suppressing a blaze in its early stage. Aging apartments are also not required to retrofit fire safety performance, so unless they undergo reconstruction or remodeling, they remain structurally exposed to fire risks.
According to the Gangnam Fire Station on the 25th, a fire broke out around 6:18 a.m. the previous day in a unit on the eighth floor of Eunma Apartments, killing a teenage eldest daughter who was at home. The mother in her 30s and the younger daughter, who were in the same home, were injured, suffering facial burns or inhaling smoke. Fire authorities who responded to the report fully extinguished the blaze around 7:36 a.m., about an hour after it started. A total of 143 personnel and more than 40 pieces of equipment were deployed to the scene, and 70 apartment residents evacuated on their own.
◇ Exception to mandatory installation of fire safety facilities in aging apartments
Eunma Apartments, where the accident occurred, is an aging complex completed in 1979 and is not obligated under the Fire-fighting Facilities Act to install fire safety equipment such as sprinklers. Before the Eunma Apartments incident, a fire at an apartment in Haeundae-gu, Busan, on the 13th killed two residents in their 70s. That apartment, also an aging 41-year-old complex built in 1985, did not have sprinklers installed.
Under the current Fire-fighting Facilities Act, multifamily housing of six stories or higher or with a total floor area of 5,000㎡ or more must have sprinklers installed on every floor. However, aging apartments built before 1992, when the provisions on sprinkler systems under the act were made mandatory, are not subject to this installation requirement for fire safety facilities. Because the legal standards in effect at the time of the building permit apply, if a building was constructed before the act was strengthened, these obligations cannot be imposed retroactively. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters, there were 10,602 dwelling fires over the past five years, and 116 people died in homes without sprinklers.
A Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) official said, "Regulations are being tightened, such as expanding the buildings subject to mandatory sprinkler installation under the Fire-fighting Facilities Act, but buildings constructed with prior permits are not applied retroactively."
Since 2020, after the boarding house fire in Jongno-gu, Seoul, the government has been carrying out a project to reinforce fire safety performance in private buildings, but multifamily housing is not included. The fire safety performance reinforcement project targets buildings of three stories or higher among multiuse facilities such as medical institutions, nursing and childcare facilities, youth training centers, boarding houses, and postpartum care centers that used combustible exterior materials or lack sprinklers. The government and local governments each cover one-third of the expense within a limit of 40 million won, and the building owner pays the remainder.
◇ Can existing buildings also reinforce fire safety performance?
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) has been examining since last year whether the obligation to reinforce fire safety can be applied to existing multifamily housing. However, imposing additional obligations on buildings that have already received building permits requires a careful review of legal validity, including whether regulations can be applied retroactively, deepening the government's dilemma.
In September last year, after the fire at a pilotis multifamily housing complex in Gwangmyeong, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced improvement measures, saying, "As casualties from apartment fires continue, it is important to make fundamental improvements to fire safety, so there is a need to impose obligations (for fire safety reinforcement) in the public interest of national safety," while adding, "However, we will review ways to minimize the infringement of the legitimate expectations of individuals such as owners and managers," signaling a cautious stance.
Given the difficulty of mandating fire safety performance reinforcement in aging apartments, some say voluntary measures for fire safety should be carried out by residents' representative councils rather than by individual residents.
Some argue that, since it is realistically difficult to mandate fire safety measures, reconstruction and remodeling should proceed quickly. Eunma Apartments, where the fire occurred this time, has been pushing for reconstruction since the late 1990s, but the plan has been repeatedly delayed due to safety inspection issues and conflicts among association members.