<Anchor> The



fire at the Coupang Logistics Center in June started from an electrical spark at an electrical outlet. The earth leakage breaker worked and had to cut off the electricity, but it eventually spread to a big fire.



Reporter Park Jae-hyun found out why this happened through an experiment.



<Reporter>



Coupang Logistics Center on June 17th.



A fire breaks out at the outlet the fan is connected to.



Suddenly, sparks bounce off and the fire spreads.



A small fire that started from an outlet quickly engulfed the entire building.



Daegu sauna fire in 2019, killing 3 people and injuring 40 others.



The fire also started from an old outlet.



Both fires started with sparks from the outlet, but the earth leakage breaker was useless.



Why did the earth leakage breaker not work properly?



The experiment was conducted with the Disaster Prevention Test Institute.



We have set up a situation that allows electricity to flow inside an outlet that has been soaked with dust and water.



[Seong-Jae Kim / Manager of Fire Investigation Center, Disaster Prevention Testing and Research Institute: I will power it up.] A



flame spattered and smoke rose.



The flames quickly grow and shoot out in all directions.



However, the earth leakage breaker does not work.



The switch did not go down even in a situation in which sparks splattered at the earth leakage breaker.



If the amount of current changes rapidly due to leakage or overload, the earth leakage breaker automatically cuts off the electricity.



However, if the sparks are sparking with a clicking sound, it means that electricity is passed through air or foreign matter.



Therefore, there is no sudden change in the amount of current and the earth leakage breaker does not work.



[Seong-Jae Kim / Manager of Fire Investigation Center, Disaster Prevention Test Research Institute: (Flame discharge) The current flows so little that the circuit breaker cannot detect it. It has to flow a lot, but the circuit breaker says, 'Oh, this is an accident.']



According to the Fire Department, 24% of all fire accidents last year were due to electrical problems.



In about half of these, the earth leakage breaker did not do its job.



For this reason, circuit breakers that can detect sparks were introduced early in the US and Europe, but there are no related regulations in Korea.



(Video coverage: Yang Doo-won, video editing: Hwang Ji-young, CG: Seo Seung-hyun)