Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae convened an emergency meeting Wednesday to address the fire at a Coupang Inc. logistics center in Incheon, announcing plans to conduct urgent fire safety inspections at large warehouses across the province and strengthen both fire safety regulations and on-site response systems.
The meeting was called in response to the major logistics center fire that broke out in Incheon on Saturday, with the aim of conducting a comprehensive review of fire hazards at large warehouses in Gyeonggi Province and reinforcing fire safety management from prevention through emergency response.
Following the meeting, the Gyeonggi Province fire department will first inspect 15 Coupang Inc. warehouses with a total floor area of 100,000 square meters or more, before expanding checks to 41 facilities classified as top-tier fire safety management targets and 432 first-tier facilities with a total floor area of at least 15,000 square meters.
Inspectors will focus on compliance with battery and hazardous materials storage and handling standards, the maintenance of fire suppression systems, and the safety management practices of facility operators. Alongside this, the province plans to examine not only whether facilities meet current legal standards but also whether improvements are needed in light of the latest safety benchmarks, and to identify latent on-site risks — with inspection results to be made public.
"This is a matter of life and safety," Choo said. "For measures essential to fire safety, we need to establish reasonable standards that can be applied retroactively, and we need legislative amendments to expand government support." She called on the central government and the National Assembly to put the necessary measures in place.
fob140@heraldcorp.com
