63 minutes needed to evacuate Lotte World Tower
The evacuation time for Korea’s tallest building in case of fire was estimated to be over an hour.
Data from the National Fire Agency revealed it takes up to 63 minutes to evacuate the 123-floor-high, 555-meter-tall Lotte World Tower in case of fire, according to Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Sunday.
As skyscrapers increasingly crowd major Korean cities, adequate evacuation guidelines are in dire need, the lawmaker said in a press statement.
In a training session the agency conducted jointly with citizens, it took up to 63 minutes to evacuate everyone using the emergency elevator and 60 minutes by stairs.
In a mock test on 2,936 citizens, the agency estimated the time needed to evacuate assuming a fire erupted on the 107th floor of the building. It calculated the time they took to get to the safety zones located on the 83rd and 102th floor of the building and then to the ground floor using the emergency elevator and stairs.
“A momentary lapse in judg- ment, inadequate response to emergency, or neglect in safety management could lead to catastrophic results,” Rep. Jin said. “Considering there are over 10,000 employees and a floating population, I’m doubtful whether everyone can safely evacuate the building within an hour in such chaos.”
Safety equipment is also lacking. The fire agency’s tallest ladder is only 70 meters, and can reach up to around the 28th floor of a building. There are only one of these ladders in Seoul and Busan each.
The next tallest ladders are 55 meters and are available nationwide, but they only reach up to the 22nd floor.
Government safety enforcements have strengthened in recent years, requiring buildings to be made of non-flammable materials and have safety zones with emergency elevators for every 30 floors. But many buildings do not meet these requirements.
Korea has are 107 buildings at least 50 floors tall and 15 additional ones under construction. Busan has the highest number of skyscrapers, with 28 such buildings and 13 more are being built. Seoul has 22, with two more underway.