Fire doors left open lead to increased human casualties: safety negligence caused man-made disaster

[Anchor]

The fire at a hotel in Bucheon, which resulted in 19 casualties, has been revealed through investigations to be a typical man-made disaster caused by negligence in safety management.

The hotel left the fire door open, and the situation worsened as staff arbitrarily turned off the alarm during the fire.

Reporter Lee Ye-rin has the details.

[Report]

Bright red flames and black smoke rise beyond the hotel windows.

In the Bucheon hotel fire, 7 guests lost their lives and 12 were injured.

The police announced the results of their two-month investigation.

They stated that immediately after the fire broke out, smoke filled the corridor and spread rapidly through the open emergency exit fire door, leading to greater casualties.

Although the design included a 'door closer' to ensure that guest room doors would close automatically in case of fire, it was not actually installed.

The alarm did go off during the fire, but it was revealed that a hotel employee turned it off.

[Kim Jong-min/Head of the Metropolitan Area Investigation Unit, Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police : "The evacuation of guests was delayed by 2 minutes and 24 seconds because the alarm was only reactivated after confirming the fire."]

Of the total 63 guest rooms, about half did not have fire escape ladders, and even in the rooms that did, there were issues such as short rope lengths or lack of usage instructions, indicating poor management.

The cause of the fire in room 810 was determined to be due to poor electrical wiring.

Regarding the appropriateness of the installation and operation of air mattresses, the police concluded that they could not hold the fire department criminally responsible.

[Kim Jong-min/Head of the Metropolitan Area Investigation Unit, Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police: "We found it very difficult to say that the deaths were due to the fire department not acting properly."]

The police have applied for arrest warrants for four individuals, including the hotel owner and operators, on charges of negligent homicide.

In response to the police announcement, the victims' families expressed their devastation at the investigation results, stating that the victims only jumped out after seeing the air mattresses and that there were no issues with the rescue efforts.

This is KBS News, Lee Ye-rin.