At the scene of the household goods factory fire in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong, an additional object believed to be bone fragments was found, and police said they will proceed with forensic analysis. With the site severely damaged and the cause of the fire difficult to determine, police are speeding up the investigation by conducting a second joint forensic inspection with related agencies.
The Serious Accident Investigation Team of the North Chungcheong Provincial Police Agency said on Feb. 5 that an object that appeared to be bone fragments was found at the fire scene the previous afternoon and that it plans to ask the National Forensic Service to conduct an examination. The object was reportedly found near the waste collection area on the first floor of Building A (tentative name), where two missing foreign workers were known to have worked.
The Serious Accident Investigation Team said it plans to carry out a second joint forensic inspection on the morning of the same day with the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL), the fire authorities and others. A police official said, "Because the internal facilities were completely burned, we determined it was difficult to pinpoint the exact ignition source from the first inspection alone," and added, "We plan to reexamine the cause, including the electrical system."
The fire broke out at the factory at about 2:55 p.m. on Jan. 30. Two workers—one in their 20s (a Nepalese national) and one in their 50s (a Kazakh national)—who were handling waste disposal for a subcontractor went missing, and the blaze burned all three production buildings in the factory complex (a total of 24,170 square meters) before being fully extinguished in about 21 hours and 10-plus minutes. Earlier, one body was recovered near the stairs on the second floor of Building A, and the identity has not yet been confirmed.