<Anchor> The
results of a joint firefighting investigation into the Pyeongtaek refrigerated warehouse fire that killed three firefighters earlier this year will come out as early as the end of this month.
We analyzed the recordings of the fire department at the time of the accident.
It was confirmed that late night on-site command was not carried out properly, and the special vehicle for emergency rescue was not even put in while waiting at the scene.
This is reporter Hyung-woo Jeon.
<Reporter> The
time the fire was reported at the construction site of the Pyeongtaek Refrigerated Warehouse was 11:46 p.m. on January 5th.
According to the transcript of the firefighters' radio contents at the time, the chief of the Songtan Fire Department arrived at the scene around 1:10 a.m. on the 6th.
And he takes over the command oversight authority from the commanding team leader.
However, after that, 'Songtanhana', meaning the chief, did not appear on the radio for 8 hours.
The fire spread again, and three firefighters were isolated, and only appeared at 9:11 a.m. to instruct them to escape.
[Kim Joo-hyeong / Secretary General of the Firefighters' Union: (Chief) must be able to check the suppression status and cope with it, but there is no fact that he has exercised the right of command since arriving.] There
was also a problem in the command process using special vehicles at the time .
There were many, the union argued.
There are only 7 unmanned destructive water tanks in the country, and they are special vehicles worth 1.5 billion won per unit that extinguish the fire by spraying water inside the building after drilling through the outer wall without the use of firefighters.
This vehicle arrived at 1:41 in the morning, but there was no radio to put the vehicle in overnight, and it found a vehicle waiting on the roadside and instructed to withdraw at 6:31.
At the same time, other special vehicles such as articulated ladder trucks and chemical vehicles that spray chemicals used to extinguish fires are also ordered to evacuate.
[Kim Joo-hyung/Director General of Fire
Union: In fact, commanders have to pay attention and arrange the vehicles so that they can be utilized, but (special vehicles) only wait on the roadside and then enter the office again.]
He pointed out that the safety of the firefighters was not secured because the special vehicles were not utilized properly and the firefighters were withdrawn before the fire was completely extinguished.
[Kim Joo-hyung / Secretary General of the Firefighters' Union: Using such a (special) vehicle to put out a (fire) at the end would have been possible enough, but as I was trying to finish it with manpower unconditionally, the rollover (combustion expansion) phenomenon suddenly appeared, so the employee was obedient. The results of a joint investigation organized by
the
Fire Service and involving the families of the deceased firefighters and the firefighters' union are expected to be announced at the end of this month at the earliest.
(Video coverage: Hyun-cheol Park and Hyung Yoon, Video editing: Tae-ho Yoon)