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When a big fire broke out at the Coupang distribution center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province last month, suspicions were raised that the sprinklers did not work properly.
As a result of the investigation, it was revealed that the employee who was managing the facility at the time actually turned off the fire alarm 6 times saying he thought it had sounded wrong.
Reporter Han Seong-hee on the sidewalk.
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fire that started at the outlet burned terribly.
The total floor area of the distribution center was the size of 15 soccer fields, and it was filled with flammable materials such as paper boxes and vinyl.
The fire that was thought to have been caught suddenly rekindled, and firefighter Kim Dong-sik died unfortunately.
It took over five days for the fire to completely burn the warehouse and go out.
However, suspicions arose that there was a problem with the operation of the sprinkler.
[Park Soo-jong/Chief of Disaster Prevention Division, Icheon Fire Station, Gyeonggi (June 18): In general, the receiver keeps malfunctioning, so there are cases where the firefighting facility is temporarily put on hold.
The police investigation confirmed the allegations to be true.
When the fire alarm went off, it was revealed that the employees of the subcontractor in charge of managing firefighting facilities had pressed the 'fire recovery key' six times to stop the alarm.
He did not check the scene even though there was a real fire because of the frequent malfunction of the alarm.
Because of this insensitivity to safety, the fire alarm did not lead to the operation of the sprinkler, and 10 minutes passed like gold in the meantime.
The police said that they had booked three employees of a firefighting facility, but could not confirm whether there were instructions from the Coupang headquarters.
(Video coverage: Hong Jong-su, Ha Ryung, Kim Yong-woo, video editing: Jeon Min-gyu, CG: Jeong Hyeon-jeong)