Interior ministry sets winter fire safety drive as heating season nears

South Korea's interior ministry said Wednesday it will run a four-month winter fire safety campaign starting Nov. 1, after winter blazes accounted for 28 percent of all fires over the past five years.

Kim Kwang-yong, head of the ministry's disaster and safety management headquarters, chaired a meeting of 14 government ministries, 16 regional governments and four related agencies to coordinate the effort, which runs through Feb. 28, 2027. The ministry said it will maintain a round-the-clock response system with central ministries and local governments through the period.

Winter fires have averaged about 11,000 cases a year between 2021 and 2025. Joint fire, electrical and gas inspections will cover traditional markets and underground shopping arcades, residential facilities used by vulnerable groups such as single-room housing, dormitory-style lodgings and nursing hospitals, and large logistics warehouses, hazardous-materials plants, data centers and utility tunnels. A separate reporting period for safety complaints will open in December and run through February.

The ministry is also distributing standalone smoke alarms and portable fire-extinguishing supplies to older homes under a pilot program in six cities and counties: Samcheok, Chuncheon, Hwacheon and Hoengseong in Gangwon Province, and Naju and Gurye in the newly integrated Gwangju-Jeonnam special city. The program follows agreements with the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and the Korea Fire Insurance Association and will expand to provincial-level areas in 2027 and nationwide in 2028. The ministry is also widening enrollment in the 119 safety call service, which checks on older adults and people with disabilities registered as needing help to evacuate on their own.

"The government will take care of everything from inspections of vulnerable facilities to on-site fire response so that the public can spend the winter safely," Kim said. "I also ask the public to check and familiarize themselves in advance with everyday fire prevention rules and evacuation procedures."