Illegal parking blamed for causing more casualties in Jecheon fire

By Jung Min-ho

Vehicles are illegally parked on a narrow street in the Bupyeong District of Incheon, Monday. / Korea Times photo by Lee Hwan-jik

When people park their cars illegally on the street, they just worry about a fine. Almost no one thinks they may jeopardize people’s lives by parking illegally. But that’s exactly what happened when illegally parked cars blocked firefighters from getting to a burning building in Jecheon last week.

Seven minutes after the fire, which eventually killed 29 people and injured 36, was reported fire trucks arrived near the scene at 3:53 p.m., Thursday. But they were blocked by the many cars that filled the narrow street.

As a result, only small fire rescue vehicles were able to get near the building, while big fire trucks, such as those equipped with ladders, had to wait an additional 30 minutes to get close enough to the building to be useful. It could have been even longer had citizens not volunteered to push away the parked cars.

This is just one of the situations firefighters often face.

According to Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters, it received 54 requests for compensation for damage firefighters caused while performing their duties between January 2015 and June this year. In some cases, firefighters had to spend their own money to resolve such issues.

The good news is that the National Assembly revised the “unfair, disruptive law” two days after the incident to exempt firefighters from punishment for damage they cause while on duty. But the bad news is that it won’t deter drivers from blocking fire trucks on the road. The National Assembly has been hesitant about passing a bill to impose fines on drivers doing this.

If the emergency exit on the building’s second floor, where 20 people were killed, had been open during the blaze, more people could have survived.

They could not evacuate immediately because the exit was blocked by a wire rack. This is a violation of the Fire Prevention Law, which in many cases building owners do not follow. According to the latest inspection by the Northern Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters, 11 buildings in the region do not have proper emergency exits.

In addition, building owners usually turn off fire sprinklers because if they are activated by mistake they could cause damage to their buildings. That’s why none of the Jechon building’s sprinklers worked when the fire occurred.

On Sunday, police detained the building owner, surnamed Lee, on suspicions that he illegally renovated the building and violated fire safety rules. The prosecution is expected to request an arrest warrant for him soon.

Meanwhile, some families of the victims have criticized firefighters, saying they also made a critical mistake.

It took nearly 40 minutes for firefighters to break a window on the second floor after they arrived at the scene. Some families claimed firefighters made an error in judgment, wasting the “golden time” to rescue their loved ones.

Police and firefighters suspect that the fire started from wires that were being installed in ceiling pipes on the first-floor parking lot. Surveillance footage shows a flame instantly spreading to the vehicles. The fire department has sent the footage and dashboard cameras retrieved from the cars to the National Forensic Service for further analysis.