<Anchor> The



reason why the damage was so great was that the carbon dioxide used to put out the fire was suddenly ejected. However, there were no signs of fire at the site of the accident. When the fire department investigated, it was confirmed that someone had opened the carbon dioxide manual valve.



SBS coverage, reporter Seo Dong-gyun reports exclusively.



<Reporter> The



data center building where the accident occurred was equipped with a power plant, so a carbon dioxide valve was installed as a fire extinguishing device instead of water.



[Sejin In/Professor, Department of Fire Safety, Woosong University: In the case of a power plant, you cannot use water because of the risk of electric shock. Therefore, a fire extinguishing system called a gas-based fire extinguishing system must be used, and a representative example is a carbon dioxide fire extinguishing system.]



Carbon dioxide fire extinguishing equipment works in two ways.



It is activated when the fire detector detects flames, etc. and automatically injects carbon dioxide or when a person opens a manual valve.



However, no traces of fire or flames were found in the workshop on the 3rd basement floor where the carbon dioxide leaked.



[Firefighter official: They said there was no welding or anything like that, but there was no talk about cigarettes... .]



Therefore, it is unlikely that carbon dioxide was sprayed by the operation of the fire detector, but as a result of SBS coverage, it was confirmed that someone directly opened the manual valve to allow the carbon dioxide to leak out.




A firefighting official who completed the investigation of the accident site said, "The switch on the manual valve capable of emitting carbon dioxide was open."



However, he added that it is not yet known who opened the manual valve for what reason or whether it was intentional or mistaken.



Based on these investigation results, the police are investigating the exact cause of the accident through on-site CCTV and worker statements, keeping the possibility of crime open.



(Video coverage: In Pil-seong, Video editing: So Ji-hye)



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