• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.26-35
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• 2023

Sparks cause most fire and explosion accidents in the manufacturing industry during hot work, which ignites surrounding combustible materials. Such incidents lead to high casualties due to suffocation from toxic gases and lack of evacuation. Therefore, the government recently enacted and revised 'The Occupational Safety and Health Act' to prevent fires and explosions at work sites, incorporating legal standards for fire observers, which are important in preventing accidents and the spread of fire during hot work. However, there are notable shortcomings in conducting professional cause analysis of these accidents and in aligning them with advanced foreign legal standards. Additionally, there is a lack of literature review reflecting the manufacturing industry characteristics. Despite the recent enactment and revision of legal standards, gathering sufficient opinions and professional reviews remains insufficient. To address these gaps, interviews were conducted with safety and health workers, analyzing recent fire and explosion causes in domestic manufacturing industries, and reviewing both domestic and international legal standards. Conclusively, proposed improvement measures were centered on the professionalization of fire observer education, enhancing their roles and authority realistically, and improving fire observer placement and operation standards. Consequently, additional 'Occupational Safety and Health Act' standards are necessary for fire observer education and defining the government's role. Second, precise legal standards outlining the role and authority of fire observers are required. Third tailored fire observer arrangements and management standards appropriate for varying work characteristics and company sizes are required. This study emphasizes the importance of supplementing relevant legal standards to prevent fire accidents in the manufacturing industry.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.227-243
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• 1997

Fire and smoke can from a small ignition source develop rapidly. Active systems in combination with Passive Fire Protection measures will offer highest safety standards to the building's developers and occupants. Nevertheless, the fire growth is very unpredictable and it is therefore essential at the planning stage that tested solutions are well selected according to National codes and later on installed by qualified contractors to ensure optimum performance. This demonstrates that Passive Fire Protection as safety measure cannot be neglected. Recent fire cases all over the world still proof that fire can develop any time and any where even in countries of high safety standards.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.62-65
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• 2018

The rapid progress toward the 4th industrial society has led to possibilities of fire increase. It is pointed out that, though initial fire suppression is emphasized, the current legal systems do not sufficiently recognize the importance of initial fire suppression. In order to resolve this, problems of the current legal systems and regulations, as well as fire-fighting facilities to be equipped according to the size of specific fire-fighting objects, were diagnosed. Also, suggestions for improvement were provided through comparative analysis with relevant laws and technical regulations of Korea and other countries. According to fire safety standards such as NFPA, IMO, ISO, and Russian standards, automatic fire extinguishers are to be installed as per the adaptability criteria of fire extinguishers and automatic fire extinguishers. In Korea, the "Act on Fire Prevention and Installation, Maintenance, and Safety Control of Fire-fighting Systems" cover the types and scope of fire fighting facilities that include specific fire protection objects, such as electric room, power room, and substation room. This study has identified that, in case of a place with a floor area of less than $300m^2$, the installation requirement is not clearly specified. Therefore, in this study, fire extinguishing equipment and automatic fire extinguishing equipment to be added for each sub-use application are proved to have fire extinguishing performance of Class A, Class B, and Class C, respectively. In view of the fact that, in overseas standards, all space except containing such materials as Deep fire, metal fire and peroxide, can be installed with fire fighting equipment, a legal system for specifying the capacity units of fire fighting apparatus by application is, in this study, proposed.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.265-285
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• 2018

This paper presents a state-of-the-art review on the design, research and education aspects of fire safety engineering (FSE) with a particular concern on high-rise buildings. FSE finds its root after Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, followed by Great London Fire in 1666. The development of modern FSE is continuously driven by industry revolution, insurance community and government regulations. Now FSE has become a unique engineering discipline and is moving towards performance-based design since 1990s. The performance-based fire safety design (PBFSD) involves identification of fire safety goals, design objectives, establishment of performance criteria, and selection of proper solutions for fire safety. The determination of fire scenarios and design fires have now become major contents for PBFSD. To experience a rapid and positive evolution in design and research consistent with other engineering disciplines, it is important for fire safety engineering as a profession to set up a special educational system to deliver the next-generation fire safety engineers. High-rise buildings have their unique fire safety issues such as rapid fire and smoke spread, extended evacuation time, longer fire duration, mixed occupancies, etc., bringing more difficulties in ensuring life safety and protection of property and environment. A list of recommendations is proposed to improve the fire safety of high-rise buildings. In addition, some source information for specific knowledge and information on FSE is provided in Appendix.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2022.04a
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• pp.77-78
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• 2022

This study compared the fire safety standards for windows of Korea, the U.S. and Japan to prevent fire expansion through exterior wall openings, and conducted experiments using PVC and aluminum window frames, which are widely used in Korea.The experiment is KS F 2845 which combines frames of the same thickness and area with single-window form and 1 hour fire resistance glass with 8T thickness. Experiments showed that the PVC window was about 9 minutes and the aluminum window was about 26 minutes. However, in Korea, there are no test standards for windows installed at the opening of the exterior wall. In addition, fire safety standards for windows shall be established along with the designation of fire prevention zones.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2021.11a
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• pp.54-55
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• 2021

This study compared the fire safety standards for windows of Korea, the U.S. and Japan to prevent fire expansion through exterior wall openings, and conducted experiments using PVC and aluminum window frames, which are widely used in Korea.The experiment is KS F 2845 which combines frames of the same thickness and area with single-window form and 1 hour fire resistance glass with 8T thickness. Experiments showed that the PVC window was about 9 minutes and the aluminum window was about 26 minutes. However, in Korea, there are no test standards for windows installed at the opening of the exterior wall. In addition, fire safety standards for windows shall be established along with the designation of fire prevention zones.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.106-107
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• 2021

The fire in Ulsan in 2020 was a 33-story residential and commercial complex with about 90 injuries and more than 10 billion won in property damage, and considering the recent increase in high-rise residential and commercial complexes, the risk of similar fires is high. As can be seen through the residential and commercial complex fire case in Ulsan, life-based fire safety standards need to be established to minimize casualties. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to draw improvements for the development of human safety standards for high-rise residential facilities in the future through comparison with the Korean Building Act, Firefighting-rellated Acts and the U.S. NFPA 101.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2020.11a
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• pp.61-62
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• 2020

After the fire in Grenfell, a special fire safety survey was conducted, and the spirit of building fire safety is increasing. However, as can be seen from the fact that more than 80 people were injured in the Ulsan residential fire in 2020, there are no cases of making it a life safety standard for buildings, and there is an urgent need to investigate this. In this research, we will investigate the five fires that occurred in Grenfell, England, derive the problems, and use them as basic data for establishing the safety standards for Korean-style human life in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.23-31
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• 2023

Revising the Occupational Safety and Health Act led to enacting and revising related laws and systems, such as placing fire observers in hot workplaces. However, the operating standards in such cases are still ambiguous. Although fire accidents occur through multiple and multi-step factors, the hazards of fire accidents have been identified in this study as individual rather than interrelated factors. The aim has been to identify multiple factors of accidents, outlining fire and explosion accidents that recently occurred in the domestic manufacturing industry. First, major keywords were extracted through text mining. Then representative accident types were derived by combining the main keywords through the co-word network analysis to identify the hazards and their relationships. The representative fire accidents were identified as six types, and their major hazards were then addressed for improving safety measures using the identification of hazards in the "Risk Assessment" tool. It is found that various safety measures, such as professional fire observers' training and clear placement standards, are needed. This study will provide useful basic data for revising practical laws and guidelines for fire accident prevention, system supplementation, safety policy establishment, and future related research.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.110-119
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• 2020

The National Fire Safety Code (NFSC) sets forth the installation methods and technical standards of firefighting facilities. This information is stipulated in the attached Table 1 of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Fire Prevention and Installation, Maintenance and Safety Control of Fire-Fighting Systems. The NFSC serves as a foundation for fire prevention and public safety. However, the current version of the NFSC has been under scrutiny due to its delayed enactment and revision process. This is because of its structural inflexibility, time-consuming procedures, and mixed usage of both performance and technical standards. Furthermore, there are difficulties with keeping its unique specialties due to the absence of a specialized, permanent independent entity that enacts, revises, and maintains its standards. Moreover, the NFSC lacks collectivity, openness, and consistency. Therefore, to overcome the aforementioned obstacles, this study investigates the operational and legal status of the NFSC and the problems regarding its enactment and revision process. Further, it presents suggestions for system improvement by analyzing and comparing the information with domestic and foreign counterparts dedicated to managing their similar technical NFSC standards. First, the study recommends that the legal performance and technical standards mixed within the current NFSC should be separated. Second, the enactment and revision of technical standards should be implemented by the private sector and not by the government. Third, technical standards should adopt a user-oriented approach for the code system.