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It has been a month since a fire in the soundproof tunnel on the 2nd Gyeongin Expressway caused serious casualties.

We need to prevent similar accidents, but rather than vaguely urging measures to prevent recurrence, we actually went to a place where we were well prepared for accidents.



Reporter Lee Kang covered <So Far>.



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The soundproof tunnel on the 2nd Gyeongin Expressway where the accident took place was built with flammable materials and there was no escape route inside the tunnel.



The entry blocking facility was also jammed on one side.



[Cho Nam-seok/Injured person at the time of the fire: (Into the accident tunnel) I went in and burst because there was a little bit.

Black smoke comes out of it...

.]



Five people were killed and 46 injured.



There are no regulations on what materials it should be made of, and there is no need to have firefighting equipment under the current law.



Are all soundproof tunnels this dangerous?



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It is a soundproof tunnel completed in 2015 that was not even subject to government management guidelines.



Emergency doors are lined up next to the tunnel, and



[Kim Geon-soo/Korea Expressway Corporation Gunpo Branch Facility Manager: ((Emergency doors) are (installed) every few meters?) There are every 50m.

(Emergency door?) Yes.]



Fire hydrants are installed in between.



Instead of PMMA, aka acrylic plate, which was the main culprit of the last accident, it is tempered glass that surrounds the side of the tunnel.



[Kim Geon-soo/Korea Expressway Corporation, Gunpo Branch, Facility Manager: This is tempered glass, so when it breaks, it breaks like a car glass.

(It's glass, so it won't burn.) Yes, that's right.]



There are jet fans and water pipes to remove the smoke, and there is also an evacuation road next to the tunnel.



[Kim Nam-soo/Head of Tunnel Disaster Prevention Certification Center (in charge at the time): (At the time) there was no definition of a soundproof tunnel, so we had to discuss it internally and see it as a 'tunnel'.

If you add more disaster prevention facilities (than normal tunnels), you can do more, but you can't do less (concluded.)]



The safety measures for general tunnels are more elaborate.



In the case of the Inje-Yangyang Tunnel, you can know in advance whether an oncoming car is overheating 5km before the entrance, and immediately know if it is moving abnormally inside the tunnel or if there is a fire.



In case of a fire, 4,400 water sprayers are installed, and the dedicated fire and tunnel rescue team is equipped with a special fire truck with a large jet fan and a 'Hydra Bus' that can drive in both directions, which is advantageous for tunnel rescue activities. We are waiting.



There are more than 50 passages between tunnels where people, cars and large buses can evacuate in the opposite direction.



The emergency tunnel is completely connected to the outside.



[Seungjun Kim/Deputy Manager of Yangyang Branch of Korea Expressway Corporation: (Why did you do this?) I think that it should be made stronger even if it is double, triple, or quadruple for safety, not for efficiency.]



In April of last year, this tunnel was built A passing car stopped in the middle of the tunnel and was engulfed in flames, but tunnel maintenance staff noticed and extinguished the fire before firefighters arrived.



This accident, in which no one was hurt, took 5 minutes to put out the fire.



(Video coverage: Seo Jin-ho·Lee Seung-hwan, video editing: Kim Cho-ah)



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▶ Have you heard of it, a tunnel with two 'dedicated fire trucks'