16 of 40 Victims Identified, Cause of Fire Yet to Be Found
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Police are having difficulty identifying the dead victims of the fire at a warehouse in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, due to severe bodily damage. They are also trying to find out the exact cause of the accident that claimed 40 lives Monday.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency have managed to identify 16 among the 40 victims so far. The police and the National Institute of Scientific Investigation (NISI) will identify the rest through DNA tests, but it is expected to take 15 to 20 days.
The police examined the scene of the fire Tuesday together with the NISI, the Korea Gas Safety Corporation, and the Korea Electrical Safety Corp.
The fire broke out around 10:45 a.m. while 57 people were working in the 20,000-square-meter basement of the frozen goods storehouse. Seventeen were rescued or managed to escape, but the rest perished.
Considering that the workers were injecting refrigerant into the warehouse using urethane, the police suspect that the operation produced flammable gases which ignited, causing huge explosions.
The police questioned the survivors, but they testified they had no idea as to the possible cause of fire, such as welding equipment or cigarette lighter, as they were not working in the engine room where police suspect the fire first started.
The police suspect the victims were not able to escape because the fire spread quickly along with toxic gases from the urethane foam and explosions from highly flammable items there such as liquefied petroleum gas containers.
Also, the basement, the size of which is equivalent to two football fields, had only two exits, and was divided into six sections, in which the workers are believed to have had difficulty in finding the exits.
The sprinklers of the warehouse did not work, and police suspect they were destroyed at the start of the fire following the explosions.
The bereaved families demanded the warehouse company give them a detailed explanation about the accident and the working conditions there. They claimed that the company failed to satisfy the safety regulations and make a proper inspection.
The police are investigating how the company obtained the approval to build a warehouse that had only two exits, and how the warehouse passed the fire inspection.