A malfunctioning fire detector eliminated the golden window for early suppression during the Eunma Apartment fire that claimed the life of a high school girl who dreamed of becoming a doctor, an investigation has found.
According to reporting compiled by The Seoul Economic Daily on the 21st, the Gangnam Fire Station stated in a recent 167-page investigation report on the Eunma Apartment fire that "the detector's failure to operate was a key factor that caused the loss of the opportunity for early suppression."
According to the investigation, the unit where the fire broke out on the morning of February 26 this year was equipped with a fixed-temperature spot-type detector, but it failed to perform its role when needed.
An on-site inspection found the detector with its circuit sheathing destroyed and the wiring severed. The device was designed not to operate when the wiring was cut.
Firefighters believe the fire started sometime between 4:57 a.m., when the deceased student Kim (17)'s father Kim (59) left for work on the day of the accident, and around 6:18 a.m., when Kim first reported the fire. They explained that the blaze grew uncontrollable through a "flashover," in which flammable gas accumulated in an enclosed space before igniting and exploding all at once.
"At the time of the 6:18 a.m. alarm, the flames inside the unit had entered the growth stage before flashover," the investigation team analyzed. "Oxygen then flowed in through the front door and other openings, causing the flames to spread rapidly."
Kim, who woke up on the day of the accident and confirmed the fire, ultimately failed to escape. Kim's wife, who had evacuated with her younger daughter, went back into the scene to rescue her daughter and suffered severe burns to her head and shoulders.
The investigation team focused intensively on the connection between the sudden ignition and the interior construction work that had been carried out for about a month earlier this year. In this process, it separately analyzed the detector malfunction that caused the casualties.
The investigation team estimated three scenarios: the possibility that the detector had been inoperable before the construction, the possibility that the construction caused problems in the connection between the detector's internal device and the wiring, and the possibility that the detector's wiring had burned first.
The construction plan listed heating, plumbing, and wallpapering, but electrical work was omitted. Regarding this, the head of the interior company explained during the investigation that "I think I forgot and didn't write it down."
Because of the omission in the construction plan, the complex's fire safety manager was unable to determine whether lighting and wiring work had been done. Even after the construction, no electrical inspection was conducted for this unit at the management office level.
During the investigation, it was also found that the workers involved did not hold electrical licenses, sparking controversy.
Police have booked three people — two interior contractors and one electrical installer who carried out the work at the time — on charges of occupational negligence resulting in death and injury, violation of the Electrical Construction Business Act, and violation of the Fire Facilities Construction Business Act, and are conducting an investigation.
