Frequent hotel fires here point to lack of sprinklers

A hallway in the Bucheon hotel where a fire claimed the lives of seven people on Aug. 22. (Yonhap)

Following Thursday’s hotel fire in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, which claimed seven lives and injured 12 people, concerns have been raised about the lack of fire safety measures in accommodations here.

According to the National Fire Agency on Sunday, a total of 1,843 fires occurred at accommodation facilities between 2019 and 2023. These fires resulted in 32 deaths and 355 injuries.

By type of lodging, motels had the most fires, with 645 incidents, accounting for 35 percent of the total. Family-size holiday accommodations called "pension" in Korean followed with 328 fires and hotels with 273.

Among the 1,843 fires, the leading cause was electrical issues, with 708 cases, followed by carelessness with 654 cases, including 232 related to cigarette butts. There were 53 confirmed cases of arson and 63 suspected arson cases.

Despite the frequent fires leading to significant numbers of deaths and injuries, it was found that many facilities lack essential fire safety measures such as sprinklers.

Regarding sprinklers, regulatory guidelines were first introduced in 1981 encouraging sprinkler installation in accommodation facilities with over 11 stories. In 2005, sprinklers became mandatory for all lodging over 11 stories.

In 2018, a revision mandated the installation of sprinklers in all accommodation facilities with more than six stories. In December 2022, the law was further strengthened, requiring all lodging totaling over 600 square meters regardless of the number of floors to install standard sprinklers and those totally over 300 square meters to install simplified residential sprinklers, regardless of the number of stories.

Although fire safety standards have been strengthened over time, lodging built before the laws were revised remained in a blind spot, as the government had failed to apply the new regulations retroactively.

According to a 2019 survey on fire safety management conducted by the Korea Consumer Agency, none of the 20 accommodation facilities over six stories high located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province had installed any sprinklers at all.

The sprinkler-less hotel in Bucheon where Thursday's fire killed seven people was nine stories but the 2005, 2018 and 2022 laws were not applied to it, as it was built in 2004.

By Shin Ji-hye(shinjh@heraldcorp.com)