In connection with the fire incident at the Banyan Tree Resort in Busan, which claimed six lives in February, six people, including two representatives from the construction company Samjeong Corporation and Samjeong E&C, have been detained.
On the morning of the 7th, the Busan Police Agency and the Busan Labor Office held a briefing at the Busan Police Agency, stating that they had detained a total of six people, including two executives responsible for management from Samjeong Corporation and Samjeong E&C, the construction company, two site managers affiliated with Samjeong Corporation, two site managers from subcontractor A, one executive from company A, and one worker (pipefitter) on charges of professional negligence leading to death.
The two representatives from Samjeong Corporation and Samjeong E&C are facing charges of violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, while the two site managers are also charged with violating the Industrial Safety and Health Act.
According to investigative authorities, the fire occurred on the 14th of February at 10:51 a.m. (based on 119 reports), when a worker from a subcontractor was cutting a stainless steel pipe with a diameter of 37 cm using a grinder in the PT room (Plumbing terminal room) on the first floor of Building B at the site.
Following this, there were attempts to connect the pipes with a valve at that location through temporary welding 'gathering' and finalizing the welding 'main welding'. While working on the seventh pipe out of eight, sparks flew through the hole to the underground first-floor 'water treatment room' above the pipe insulation.
Han Dong-hoon, head of the Busan Police Agency's criminal mobile unit, explained, "Although sparks falling onto the insulation do not immediately set fire, they appear to have accumulated heat through 'heat accumulation' and proceeded to a preliminary ignition through 'smoldering.'"
According to police investigations, on the day of the fire, a total of eight companies were conducting similar flammable work at different locations on the Banyan Tree site. However, the subcontractor responsible for the area where the fire broke out had not only failed to deploy a fire watcher but also did not cover or block the problematic hole with fire blankets or similar materials.
As a result, the fire spread rapidly, and six workers who reached the ground first floor via the elevator were suffocated by smoke simultaneously and died.
At the time, the site had insufficient installation of fire facilities such as fire detectors, and even the fire facilities that were installed did not work properly. In particular, the sprinklers installed on the underground first floor and ground first floor could not perform their proper role because the valve supplying firefighting water was either not connected or manually turned off.
Immediately after the fire accident occurred, safety management was still being neglected. The Busan Employment and Labor Office inspected Samjeong Corporation and Samjeong E&C's headquarters, four construction sites, the headquarters of the subcontractor responsible for the welding work, and three construction sites where the work was done from February 27 to March 14.
As a result, 55 violations were identified, including failure to implement measures to prevent the scattering of sparks during welding work, lack of emergency exit signage, failure to implement fall prevention measures, and no safety and health training for workers. The Labor Office has initiated legal action on 10 of these cases and imposed fines amounting to over 120 million won for the remaining violations.
Park Hee-joo, director of the Busan Employment and Labor Office's disaster investigation department, remarked, "Safety accidents begin from minor carelessness, thinking 'surely nothing will happen,'" urging people to pay special attention.