Sindang-dong Gaemi Alley emergency bells and fire suppression equipment checked; crime-prevention design zones at Sincentral Market inspected
Seoul's Jung-gu district office joined forces with the Jungbu Police Station and Jungbu Fire Station to conduct its first joint special safety inspection in the Gaemi Alley area of Sindang-dong and around Sincentral Market ahead of the Chuseok holiday.
The inspection was tied to the "Seoul Safety Re-Design Day" initiative proposed by police, and was organized to identify safety vulnerabilities in the area before the holiday and quickly address any problems found on the scene.
Jung-gu District Mayor Kim Gil-sung, Jungbu Police Station Chief Kim Gyeong-un, Jungbu Fire Station Chief Jeong Yun-gyo and other officials walked through Gaemi Alley together, checking safety facilities closely linked to residents' daily lives.
District Mayor Kim Gil-sung personally pressed an emergency bell mounted on a utility pole in the alley to verify it connected properly in a simulated emergency. He found the speaker volume too low and requested improvements, including a volume adjustment, so residents could use it more effectively in urgent situations.
Police Chief Kim Gyeong-un examined vacant properties in the area that could cause anxiety among residents due to unauthorized entry and attached no-trespassing notices. Fire Chief Jeong Yun-gyo, taking into account the narrow alley's limited accessibility for fire trucks, carefully inspected the maintenance condition of emergency fire suppression boxes intended for initial response in the event of a fire.
The group then reviewed the safety environment that Jung-gu and the Jungbu Police Station have built together at Sincentral Market. Since last year, the two have worked to identify safety vulnerabilities in the Hwanghak-dong area and applied crime prevention through environmental design, or CPTED, installing 67 safety facilities across 15 categories — including emergency bell covers, CCTV guide signs and safe pedestrian walkways.
Walking through the market together, the three agency heads checked the maintenance condition of facilities and the pedestrian environment, and personally confirmed the operation of underground emergency fire suppression boxes.
They also listened to merchants and residents as they walked through the market, then visited the Jungbu Fire Station and Sindang Police Box to encourage firefighters and officers on duty through the Chuseok holiday.
Jung-gu, the police and the fire department plan to continue their collaboration — identifying and resolving problems together on the ground across administrative, public safety and fire-response functions — building on the momentum of this joint inspection.
"It is deeply meaningful that the district office, police and fire department have, for the first time, gone out to the field together with a shared commitment to residents' safety," District Mayor Kim said. "Safety begins with spotting even small hazards on the ground before they become problems, so we will work even more closely with police and fire to make sure residents can enjoy the Chuseok holiday with peace of mind."
Jung-gu will operate its integrated situation room around the clock throughout the Chuseok holiday to handle resident concerns and emergency situations. The Jungbu Police Station will carry out special Chuseok public-safety operations, and all three agencies plan to maintain a seamless emergency response system over the holiday, with the fire station ready to respond immediately to fires, disasters and other incidents.
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