Fire at a Hotel in Bucheon on August 22
19 Casualties... Bereaved Families Demand "Truth Investigation and Thorough Fire Safety Inspections"
A memorial ceremony was held to commemorate the 49th day since the hotel fire in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, honoring the seven victims. The bereaved families demanded a thorough investigation into the incident and strengthened fire safety inspections.
The Bucheon Fire Disaster Bereaved Families Association held the memorial ceremony at around 3 p.m. on the 9th in front of Bucheon City Hall under the theme "Never again, no one wants to lose." Approximately 150 people, including bereaved families and citizens, attended the event, along with families of victims from the Jecheon Sports Center fire disaster and the Daegu subway disaster.
Song Geun-seok, co-representative of the Bucheon Fire Disaster Bereaved Families Association, said in his opening remarks, "Since the disaster, thinking about the victims, including my son, makes it so painful that it is hard to breathe," adding, "Please pray that they can do in heaven what they could not accomplish in this world."
The reading of condolence letters from the bereaved families followed. Yang, a mother who lost her daughter, said, "Recently, tteokbokki was served at work, but I couldn’t bring myself to eat it because I remembered that the tteokbokki you made was the most delicious," and tearfully added, "Now I have no regrets even if I die, but I will live diligently for your younger sibling."
A joint incense-burning altar was also set up at the memorial for citizens to pay their respects. Citizens left chrysanthemums and post-it notes honoring the victims. The bulletin board was covered with post-it notes bearing messages such as "We will remember," "We are sorry," and "We never want to lose anyone again."
The bereaved families’ association announced five demands prepared through prior discussions: a thorough investigation, allowing bereaved families to visit the site, an apology from Bucheon City for inadequate response, thorough fire safety inspections, and the government’s establishment of measures to prevent recurrence. Kim Seong-hyun, co-representative of the Bucheon Fire Disaster Bereaved Families Association, said, "The victims died before the fire rescue operations began," adding, "If the fire department had actively worked on rescuing lives, these lives could have been saved."
The fire occurred at around 7:34 p.m. on August 22 at a hotel in Jung-dong, Bucheon, resulting in seven deaths and 12 injuries. The day before, the police arrested four people, including A, a man in his 60s who owns the hotel and neglected to replace the air conditioner wiring identified as the cause of the fire, and applied for arrest warrants.
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