Police and fire authorities will conduct a joint forensic examination of the Incheon Coupang logistics center, where a fire was extinguished after 109 hours.
According to the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency and fire authorities on the 27th, the police agency's special investigation team for the Seoknam-dong Coupang logistics center fire said it will conduct the joint examination at the Coupang No. 32 logistics center in Seoknam-dong, Seohae-gu, Incheon, starting at 10 a.m. on the 28th. Related agencies including the fire department, the National Forensic Service, and the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation will take part in the examination.
Through the examination, police plan to intensively determine the initial point of ignition, the cause of the fire, and the reasons for its spread. The Incheon Fire Headquarters had earlier stated in an "accident situation report on the fire and other matters" that the fire is presumed to have started from a box stored on a three-tier shelf (rack) on the sixth floor of the logistics center. The first person to report the fire was found to have reported that the fire broke out on the first level of the mezzanine loading structure on the sixth floor of the logistics center.
Police summoned Coupang officials for questioning as witnesses. They are also going through procedures to secure CCTV footage that includes the scene of the initial ignition.
Police plan to refer to the case of the Coupang Deokpyeong logistics center fire in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, which occurred five years ago. At the time, police concluded that officials in the logistics center's disaster prevention room delayed initial firefighting by forcibly shutting off the fire alarm six times, and applied charges of violating the Act on Fire Prevention and Installation, Maintenance, and Safety Control of Firefighting Systems.
Meanwhile, the fire broke out at the Coupang No. 32 logistics center in Seoknam-dong, Seohae-gu, Incheon, at around 6:54 a.m. on the 18th of this month, and was extinguished on the afternoon of the 22nd, about 109 hours later. Apart from two firefighters who received hospital treatment for smoke inhalation and exhaustion, no other casualties were confirmed.
