The ruling Saenuri Party aims to enhance fire safety measures at tall apartment buildings, having reached a consensus with the government to revise the law on firefighting in residential areas.

Its move came after fire accidents at apartment buildings in Uijeongbu and Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, claimed six lives within a week. A third fire broke out at an apartment in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, with four people injured, earlier this week.

The party and ministry officials in charge of public safety agreed in a meeting on Thursday that more apartment complexes should be obliged to provide evacuation facilities, which would help residents escape in the event of an emergency. Some presidential aides also participated in the discussions.

The coming law revision will focus on wider distribution of hand-operated lifts, which are supported by ropes and carry evacuators. While these have been required for buildings up to 10 stories high, they will become applicable to apartments with 11 or more floors.

In addition, the Land Ministry has decided to instruct builders to use high-quality materials for outer walls during construction of apartments. Investigators say that the fire in Uijeongbu caused more deaths and injuries due to the highly flammable outer walls, made of low-quality materials.

Governing party Secretary-General Lee Koon-hyon said the revised motion would be proposed at the extraordinary session of the National Assembly, slated for February.

He called on Saenuri lawmakers and ministry officials to bolster regulations on fire safety despite the overall policy aim of easing regulations on the business sector.

Participants also vowed to come up with new safety regulations to prevent fires from spreading to adjacent buildings.

The distance between the affected apartment buildings was only about 1 meter, allowing the fire to spread easily, authorities said.

While regular apartment buildings must be over 6 meters apart, this rule has not been applied to buildings containing apartments under 85 square meters in size since 2009. This was part of the deregulation package of the former administration to boost apartment construction to resolve the housing crisis.

The public safety officials, meanwhile, said they would soon draft a set of measures to support some 200 displaced residents who are staying at a temporary shelter.

In Uijeongbu ― where the biggest of the three fires took place ― the blaze started on the first floor of an apartment building and quickly spread to two adjacent residential buildings, killing four and wounding 126 people.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)