The cause of the April fire at a cold storage warehouse in Wando, South Jeolla, in which two firefighters died in the line of duty, was found to be "fire gas ignition (FGI)." It means gas generated from urethane foam accumulated without being vented outside and then caused a sudden explosion.
The National Fire Agency announced the findings of a joint fire investigation team on the 3rd. At about 8:25 a.m. on Apr. 12, a fire broke out at a cold storage warehouse in Gunoe-myeon, Wando County, and only five of the seven firefighters inside escaped. Fire lieutenant Park Seung-won and firefighter No Tae-young died in the line of duty.
The investigation team also pointed to ◇ insufficient risk information on the fire-damaged building ◇ inadequate situation assessment and decision-making on strategy and tactics ◇ shortcomings regarding special fires ◇ deficiencies in the standard operating procedure (SOP) for risk assessment ◇ inadequate organization and operation of a rapid intervention team (RIT).
The National Fire Agency will therefore improve the 119 command-and-control system so that risk information and strategy and tactics information at disaster scenes can be provided to responding units in real time.
It also plans to expand training on the dangers of high-risk special fires such as urethane foam and sandwich panels, and to mandate that at high-risk fire scenes similar to this incident, a rapid intervention team (RIT) be proactively organized and operated.
The agency will push to expand equipment, including unmanned firefighting robots, so firefighters can extinguish fires without being deployed directly into dangerous areas. It will also gradually increase about 5,000 essential field personnel over five years from 2026 to 2030.
Acting Commissioner Choi Yong-cheol of the National Fire Agency said, "We express our deepest condolences to the two firefighters who died in the line of duty and offer our sincere sympathies to their bereaved families," adding, "Through this joint investigation, we closely examined what did not function properly at the scene, and we will first make up for measures that can be immediately improved so the same accident is not repeated."