More than 90% of accommodation facilities in Seoul do not have sprinklers installed, and the city is moving to address fire safety blind spots in capsule hotels and similar lodgings.
Seoul City announced a comprehensive plan on the 21st to strengthen fire safety at small lodging facilities such as capsule hotels and dormitories. The plan includes a citywide inspection, reinforcement of firefighting facilities, and an integrated management system for properties that are feared to face large-scale casualties in the event of a fire because of their narrow corridors and densely packed beds.
There are 7,958 lodging facilities in Seoul. Of these, 2,097 are governed by the Public Health Control Act and 5,861 by the Tourism Promotion Act. More than 90% of them have no sprinklers, including simple sprinkler systems, leaving them effectively without equipment that can automatically suppress a fire in its early stages.
The cause lies in gaps in the current law. The Fire Services Act excludes small lodging facilities with a business area under 300 square meters from the mandatory sprinkler installation requirement. About 80% of all lodging facilities in Seoul fall into this category. In other words, they are exempt from safety measures simply because they are small. Concerns about limits in early fire suppression and rapid evacuation have been raised repeatedly.
Safety obligations that slip through simply because of size
Although capsule hotels and dormitories are small in area, their fire risk is actually higher. Because operators try to fit as many sleeping spaces as possible into a limited area, the beds are closely spaced and the passageways are narrow. They are used by an unspecified number of people, and combustibles are densely concentrated relative to the space. Once a fire starts, it can spread quickly and escape routes can easily be blocked.
The danger has already become real. In March this year, a fire broke out at a capsule hotel in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, killing a female Japanese guest in her 50s. At the time, the absence of sprinklers was also cited as a cause of the incident. The loss of life at a downtown lodging facility popular with foreign tourists caused significant public concern.
A fragmented management system also widened the blind spot. Depending on the type of lodging business and facility, different laws apply, including the Public Health Control Act, the Tourism Promotion Act, the Fire Services Act, and the Building Act. With the legal framework split across multiple statutes, it has become difficult for any single agency to take full responsibility for oversight.
From a full inspection to smoke detectors inside capsules
Seoul City’s plan is built on three pillars: a full inspection, reinforcement of fire safety equipment, and integrated management. First, the city will inspect all 7,958 lodging facilities in Seoul, checking room layout, sprinkler installation, evacuation route availability, and maintenance of firefighting systems. For facilities identified as dense-room properties with inadequate safety management, joint inspections with relevant agencies will also be conducted.
For facilities that cannot immediately install sprinklers, practical alternatives will be recommended. These include automatic spreading fire extinguishers, spray-type fire extinguishers, and standalone alarm detectors, which are relatively easy to install and take up little space. For capsule and dormitory-type rooms, the city will encourage the installation of smoke detectors and spray-type fire extinguishers inside the capsules. The plan also includes securing separate charging spaces to prevent battery-related fires and distributing multilingual fire-response guides for foreign guests.
The intensity of fire inspections will also increase. The share of lodging facilities among sites subject to self-inspection by fire authorities will rise from the current 10% to 30%, and the sample survey target will expand from 250 to 350 facilities. Businesses that voluntarily install sprinklers will be informed about local tax reductions and insurance premium discounts to encourage participation. Newly opened lodging businesses will be reviewed at the building and change-of-use stages to determine whether fire safety equipment and evacuation plans are appropriate.
The real solution lies in amending the law
Many of Seoul City’s measures are only recommendations and lack enforcement power. This means businesses have little incentive to spend money to comply. That is why the city identified legal and institutional reform as the core of this plan.
The most important proposal is to designate capsule hotels and similar densely packed lodging facilities as “multi-use businesses.” If they are classified as such, simple sprinklers would become mandatory regardless of floor area. Requirements for noncombustible or quasi-noncombustible interior materials, fire liability insurance, and emergency exits would also apply. The loophole that allows small facilities to escape regulation would disappear.
A precedent exists in the case of goshiwon, or small single-room residential units. For goshiwon classified as multi-use businesses, simple sprinklers became mandatory in July 2009, but older goshiwon that had already begun operating before that date were not subject to the rule. It was in that gap that tragedy struck. A fire at the Kookil Goshiwon in Jongno, Seoul, in November 2018 killed seven people and injured 11. In response, the multi-use business law was amended in June 2020 to apply firefighting requirements retroactively to existing goshiwon, and installation was completed by June 2022.
Seoul aims to apply the same approach to lodging businesses. It has asked the central government to retroactively apply the new standards not only to newly built facilities but also to existing capsule hotels already in operation. It is also pushing to revise fire safety technical standards so that automatic spreading fire extinguishers become mandatory in small lodging facilities under 300 square meters that do not have simple sprinklers.
Detailed standards will also be revised. The city has proposed establishing new density rules, such as the number of beds relative to room area and the minimum floor space per person, and it has also recommended limiting individual locking devices inside capsule rooms so that evacuation can be carried out quickly in an emergency.
Acting Seoul Mayor Kim Seong-bo said, “Small lodging facilities such as capsule hotels and dormitories are spaces used daily by citizens and tourists, but many remain in blind spots under the current system,” adding, “We will push ahead with full inspections, reinforcement of firefighting facilities, and an integrated management system, while also continuously urging the central government to improve laws and institutions in ways that are effective.”
The success of this plan depends on whether the government’s proposal leads to legislation. Full inspections and equipment reinforcement are only temporary measures that delay fire risk; they do not eliminate the blind spot itself. Just as the Kookil Goshiwon fire led to legal reform, capsule hotel safety can only become truly effective when supported by the law.