The fire that broke out at the side gate next to Sambye-mun at Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul at dawn on Mar. 28 this year is believed to have possibly been caused by negligence rather than spontaneous ignition.
According to police on the 10th, the Jongno Police Station in Seoul captured circumstances showing that a man identified as A stayed for about one minute in a blind spot of a closed-circuit (CC) TV near the fire scene before smoke appeared. However, his specific actions were not recorded because they were obscured by trees and the like.
Police identified A on the 30th of last month, but A is said to have departed overseas at dawn the same day.
The National Forensic Service analyzed that no accelerants were detected at the scene, but it cannot rule out the possibility that they were completely consumed by the fire. Police are currently working to enhance the original CCTV footage.
The fire broke out at about 5:30 a.m. on the 28th of last month. A safety guard on patrol at the time discovered the fire and extinguished it with an extinguisher and other equipment in 20 minutes. The blaze burned one auxiliary pillar of the side gate next to Sambye-mun and part of the horizontal brace.