The family of fire lieutenant Kim Jin-seok, who died battling a factory fire in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, has raised questions about how crews were deployed and how the rescue was carried out, calling for an overhaul of safety procedures.
At a funeral hall at Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital on the 17th, relatives questioned the decision to send crews into the building and the time it took to reach the trapped firefighters.
Kim was dispatched to a metal injection molding and printing plant in Nae-dong, Ojeong District, Bucheon, where a fire broke out at about 8:38 a.m. the previous day. According to the family, he had finished a 24-hour shift and was due to go off duty at 9 a.m. Kim and three other firefighters, the first to arrive, entered the third floor to fight the blaze. The fire then spread rapidly, trapping Kim and one other firefighter. The other firefighter was rescued, but Kim was found about five meters further inside in cardiac arrest. The family said it took 27 minutes to locate Kim and questioned whether the rescue response was adequate.
Kim's sister-in-law said his breathing mask had come off when he was found. "When we asked the fire service about it, they said it has a triple locking mechanism and does not normally come off, so it appeared to have melted in the heat," she said through tears. "For the whole time the rescue was delayed, he had no choice but to breathe in the toxic fumes."
Kim's father-in-law wept as he showed a notebook filled with a timeline of the rescue and the questions he had written down. "All the plant workers had already evacuated, so there was no one left to save," he said. "I cannot understand why they sent a firefighter who was about to go off duty into a death trap without even the most basic assessment of the situation."
Kim, an 11-year veteran of the fire service, is survived by his wife and a daughter who is set to start elementary school next year.