A police investigation is indicating that the Anjeon Industry fire that left 74 dead or injured was a man-made disaster caused by poor routine safety management. With claims emerging that the Oner ignored employees' proposals to improve safety measures, calls are growing to revamp the safety manager system.
According to police and others on the 27th, the Major Crimes Investigation Unit of the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency is pointing to the failure to evacuate in time as one of the key factors in the Anjeon Industry fire that left 14 dead and 60 injured. The fire broke out at about 1:17 p.m. on the 20th, and employees consistently told police that the fire alarm sounded and then quickly stopped.
Because fire alarms frequently malfunctioned in everyday operations, police are currently investigating the possibility that employees did not evacuate immediately and were unable to escape the flames.
The second-floor mezzanine lounge at Anjeon Industry, where nine people died, is not on the blueprints and is suspected to be an illegal addition. There was also an unlicensed sodium refining facility on the third floor.
Police and fire authorities also believe the fire spread rapidly because cutting oil and lubricants used in manufacturing automobile valves, and the resulting oil vapors and grime, were not properly managed.
The issue is that many employees had already been raising concerns about the plant's safety. On the anonymous workplace community Blind, someone who identified as a former Anjeon Industry employee wrote, "We kept saying that ventilation and equipment upgrades were needed, but as I recall, it did not lead to actual action due to reasons such as cost burden."
On the Anjeon Industry board on Blind, posts with the message that "oil vapors are blowing around and the floor is slippery with oil" appeared in Oct. 2022, Aug. 2023, and Oct. 2024.
Chief Executive Officer Son Ju-hwan of Anjeon Industry visited the joint memorial altar with his daughter (executive director) the previous day to pay respects and said, "We are sorry for the occurrence of this disaster, and we apologize to the victims and bereaved families who were hurt by my careless remarks." When asked by reporters questions such as "Why did you ignore the union's demands for facility improvements?" and "Did you know about the illegal addition?" he only repeated, "I'm sorry," and "I didn't know."
The Anjeon Industry fire is also prompting calls to fix the safety manager system. On the government petition portal, a post titled "Proposal to guarantee the independence of safety managers and establish a direct reporting system to the government" was uploaded.
The proposer said, "Under the current Occupational Safety and Health Act, safety managers assist, guide, and advise business owners, but as in this Anjeon Industry case, even when a safety manager identifies and reports on-site risk factors, the chronic practice of management ignoring them for reasons such as expense or shortening the construction period is being repeated."
They added, "Even if a safety manager recommended risk mitigation to the business owner, if it is not implemented within a certain period without justifiable reason, a legal duty should be imposed to report it directly to the relevant government ministries."
Experts also agreed on the need to improve the safety manager system. Chae Jin, a professor in the Department of Fire Safety at Mokwon University, said, "In most cases, to cut expense, an internal employee who has completed safety manager training takes on the role," adding, "It would be effective to ban concurrent posts for safety managers and to hire outside experts."
Ahn Hong-seop, a professor in the Department of Architectural Engineering at Kunsan National University, said, "Compared with the role of safety managers under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, a heavy level of responsibility is being imposed," adding, "It is necessary to revamp the system by giving safety managers independent authority or by increasing the responsibility of the top decision-maker."