[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The police are summoning and investigating officials from Daejeon Hyundai Premium Outlet.
The Daejeon Police Agency held a briefing on the Hyundai Outlet fire accident on the 6th. On this day, the police summoned Hyundai Outlet officials as witnesses for investigation and warned that depending on the investigation results, legal review and further investigation (conversion to suspect) may proceed.
The Hyundai Outlet fire accident occurred around 7:45 a.m. on the 26th of last month in the building's underground parking lot.
The CCTV footage secured at the scene during the fire showed flames appearing around a 1-ton cargo truck driver unloading goods after parking in the basement level 1 loading dock. The footage also showed stacks of cardboard boxes and clothing around the loading dock where the cargo truck was parked.
In relation to this, the police have been conducting a joint on-site inspection with the National Forensic Service, Korea Electrical Safety Corporation, and fire authorities since the day after the fire accident.
However, it is expected to take considerable time to analyze debris such as wires collected from the vehicle parked in front of the ignition point at the basement level 1 loading dock and the nearby parking lot floor.
"Currently, the National Forensic Service is disassembling and inspecting the engine of the vehicle collected from the fire scene, but it is not easy to determine whether the cause of the fire is an internal or external issue of the vehicle. Therefore, the police are keeping all possibilities open during the investigation," explained the police.
However, regarding the possibility of accidental fire caused by cigarettes or issues related to electric vehicle charging, they added, "The secured CCTV footage did not capture the driver smoking, and no abnormalities related to electric vehicles were found."
The police also emphasized that they will focus on whether fire-fighting equipment such as sprinklers operated normally during the fire, based on the pre-action valve (prepared operation type) and CCTV footage secured during the on-site inspection.
The normal operation of fire-fighting equipment has been a key issue addressed during the on-site inspection conducted after the fire accident.
A police official said, "We will focus on finding the cause of the fire based on the materials secured during the on-site inspection," but added, "If the cause of the fire is not clearly identified during the investigation process, additional procedures such as experiments to reproduce the accident at the National Forensic Service will be necessary, which may prolong the investigation."
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