Worker Receives Suspended Sentence After 'Bang' Incident While Melting Urethane Foam on Heater Causing Billions in Damages

Explosion of Can Due to Negligence During Conduit Burial Work
Cheongju District Court Sentences to 10 Months Imprisonment and 2 Years Probation

Workers at the site who caused a fire by trying to melt a can containing urethane foam with stove heat, resulting in property damage worth over one billion won, were sentenced to prison with a suspended sentence.

On the 1st, Judge Kim Kyung-chan of the Criminal Division 3 at Cheongju District Court announced that A (63) and B (61), who were tried on charges including negligent arson, were each sentenced to 10 months in prison with a 2-year suspended sentence and 6 months in detention with a 2-year suspended sentence, respectively.

Cheongju District Court Exterior

In February last year, A was working on embedding electrical conduits at a remodeling construction site of a building in Jincheon-gun, Chungbuk Province, when a can containing urethane foam froze and would not come out. To thaw it, he placed the can in front of a gas stove. Urethane foam, used as insulation for electrical wires and other purposes, is a flammable material. When heating the can, a fire extinguisher should have been placed nearby without exposing the can to an open flame, but this was not observed. B, the site supervisor, also failed to properly manage and supervise and had left the workplace.

Eventually, the can exploded and caused a fire. The flames spread to one lodging building and five pigsties nearby, causing damage estimated at about 1.34 billion won. About 1,700 pigs inside the pigsties were burned to death. In addition, A was also charged with driving a cargo vehicle without a license.

Judge Kim said, "The scale and extent of the damage caused by the fire due to the defendants' negligence are severe, and the restoration of the damage has not been properly carried out." He added, "However, considering that the defendants admitted their wrongdoing and are reflecting on their actions, the sentence was determined accordingly."