Death Toll Rises to 5 in Donghae Pension Explosion... Investigation into Negligent Homicide in the Workplace (Comprehensive)

Joint Forensic Team "Focus on LP Gas Pipe Sealing Investigation"
Police Investigate Illegal Pension Operators for Negligent Homicide and Injury Charges

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] The death toll from the gas explosion accident at a pension in Donghae-si, Gangwon Province has risen to five. The joint forensic team is focusing on investigating the LP gas pipeline termination, and the police plan to conduct an investigation into charges of professional negligence causing death and injury once the cause of the accident is identified.

According to Donghae-si and the police on the 26th, Lee (55), who had suffered full-body burns in the gas explosion accident the previous day and was transferred to a hospital in Cheongju for treatment, died at around 4:48 p.m. on the same day. With this, five people, including sisters and a married couple, have died, and two others, including another sister and a cousin, are undergoing treatment for full-body burns.

The Donghae pension gas explosion accident, which resulted in nine casualties, occurred at around 7:46 p.m. the previous day. The group of seven people, among whom five died, were family members including sisters, a married couple, and cousins. The other two were men in their 30s to 40s who were using a first-floor sashimi restaurant at the time of the accident; they received treatment and then returned home.

From 10:30 a.m. that day, officials from the police, the National Forensic Service, fire department, Korea Gas Safety Corporation, and Korea Electrical Safety Corporation conducted a joint on-site forensic investigation for about three and a half hours to determine the cause of the explosion.

The police and others estimate that the explosion occurred while the family of seven was cooking crab using a butane gas burner in a multi-family house operating as a pension without registration. They are focusing on the possibility that two explosions occurred at intervals of one to two minutes, first due to an LP gas leak explosion followed by a portable gas burner explosion. This is under intensive investigation.

The cooking fuel facility in the room where the accident occurred had been replaced from an LP gas stove to an induction stove, and the heating facility was known to operate electrically. However, the joint forensic investigation revealed that some of the eight rooms were still using LP gas stoves as cooking facilities, and even in rooms where induction stoves had been installed, the LP gas pipelines remained intact. The joint forensic team also stated that there is a possibility that the LP gas pipeline termination was not perfectly completed during the process of replacing the cooking equipment and fuel in the accident room with induction stoves.

A police official said, "Considering the force of the two explosions and the size of the flash captured on the closed-circuit television (CCTV) at the time of the explosion, it appears that a chain reaction occurred with an LP gas leak explosion followed by a portable gas burner explosion. We are focusing our investigation on whether the LP gas pipeline termination was thoroughly done during the induction stove replacement process."

Separately, the police have formed a joint investigation team led by the provincial police's metropolitan investigation unit and the Donghae Police Station, with the head of the provincial police criminal division serving as the team leader.

The police plan to investigate charges of professional negligence causing death and injury, as the owner of the multi-family house where the accident occurred is believed to have operated the pension illegally without officially registering the business. Additionally, a victim protection team will be operated to provide psychological counseling and support to the bereaved families and the injured.