<Anchor> The

exact cause of the fire will have to be investigated in the future, but the fire department believes that the fire occurred while working on urethane foam, which is mainly used as an insulating material when building a frozen warehouse. This was also the reason for the fire in the frozen warehouse in Icheon, where 40 people died in 2008.

Reporter Park Jae-hyun will tell you about this.

<Reporter> It

is presumed that urethane foam and sandwich panels played the role of fire starters in the Icheon Logistics Warehouse fire.

The fire that started in the underground spread rapidly to the ground, and it seems that the insulation, or urethane foam, was one of the causes.

Urethane foam is used in many buildings because of its low cost and fast construction period compared to other insulation materials.

However, because of the rapid spread of fire, it has been pointed out as a cause of a major disaster.


In 2008, the fire in the frozen warehouse in Icheon broke out when the refrigerant gas mixed with urethane, which was foaming in the basement of the building, exploded.

[Gyeonggi Icheon Fire Department Chief of Safety Guidance Team (at the time of 2008): Water did not penetrate both sides of the steel plate, and as a thermal insulation material burned, it rapidly

acted as a fire extinguishing and expanded rapidly.] Urethane foam acts as a fire starter . No, it exhales toxic gases and causes catastrophe.

In 2018, when 9 people died, the poisonous gas from urethane foam raised the fatality in the Namdong Industrial Complex fire.

[Incheol Kim / Chief of Science Investigation, Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency (at the time of 2018): Sandwich panels or urethane foams are very vulnerable to fire. Toxic gases are also released a lot… In

repeated disasters, experts point to the need to refer to cases in parts of Europe and North America where banning urethane foam is used above two-story buildings.

(Video coverage: Kim Yong-woo, Video editing: Park Ji-in)