Police have imposed an overseas travel ban on six executives, including Son Ju-hwan, head of Anjeon Gong-eop, in connection with the factory fire at Anjeon Gong-eop that left 74 people dead or injured.
Cho Dae-hyeon, chief of the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency's Major Crime Investigation Unit, said on the 26th that six executives, including Son, have been banned from leaving the country and that 53 related people have been questioned so far.
However, he added that allegations such as occupational negligence resulting in death against Son and others are still at a pre-booking stage.
After questioning related people, police secured numerous consistent statements that the fire alarm did not function properly and that evacuation only began after people directly saw smoke or heard screams.
Cho, head of the major crime unit, said, "Putting the statements together, at first they heard the alarm when the fire broke out, but it shut off shortly afterward," and "they said they thought it was the same kind of alarm malfunction as usual."
He added, "The common statement is that they evacuated only after directly recognizing the fire, such as by hearing someone shout or seeing smoke," and said, "we will continue to investigate whether the interruption of the alarm was due to human factors or a system issue."
Police said that although the alarm installed at Anjeon Gong-eop at the time is a model that does not retain digital logs, they believe they can sufficiently verify whether it operated normally and are proceeding with the investigation.
They have also obtained a statement from the first witness to the fire, who was monitoring the 24-hour operating process equipment on the first floor at the time, saying, "The fire started in the duct above line 4 on the first floor."
Police plan to continue the investigation based on the analysis of 256 pieces of evidence, including nine mobile phones seized in searches of Anjeon Gong-eop's headquarters, the Daehwa-dong Plant 2, and related figures such as Son.
Labor authorities confirmed that two of the 14 people who died in the fire were affiliated with a subcontractor and are investigating whether there was "illegal dispatch." While dispatch personnel last year were found not to have violated the law, they said it is hard to rule out the possibility that normal procedures were omitted.
Police are verifying the facts based on statements that internal proposals for safety improvements before the fire were rejected.