"I turned off the alarm when the fire broke out".Bucheon Hotel fire is 'talent'

Police "In the event of a fire, hotel staff turns off the alarm and delays evacuation"
The cause of the fire is 'air conditioning aging wires'...Poor management
Fire with sparks on aging wires without safety measures
More than half of the rooms are stubborn or defective...spread of damage

[Anchor]
A police investigation found that the Bucheon Hotel fire, which killed seven people and injured 12 others in August, was further damaged by officials' poor safety management.

It has been confirmed that the hotel staff arbitrarily turned off the fire alarm and managed the air conditioner wires and room fire doors poorly.

Reporter Shin Gwi-hye reports.

[Reporter]
The flames are soaring and the smoke is constantly coming out.

Escape by throwing yourself into an air mat for the rescue of guests urgently.

In August, a hotel in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, caught fire, killing seven people and injuring 12.

About 40 days after the fire, the police announced the results of the investigation, which was identified as a total man-made disaster.

First, the alarm went off immediately after the fire, but the hotel staff turned off the alarm to increase the casualties.

It took more than two minutes for the staff to check the fire and turn on the alarm again.

Police believe it was a time when five dead people were able to evacuate sufficiently.

[Kim Jong-min / Head of wide area investigation at Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency: Those who jumped from 807 to the air mat and the two 802 could have escaped if the emergency bell had operated normally before the golden time on the 8th floor.. ]

The cause of the fire was pointed out as the aging front of the air conditioner, which was usually poorly managed.

The hotel did not replace the old wires, and the work of connecting them to the existing wires was poorly finished only with insulating tape.

A fire broke out here.

Flames and smoke spread at a rapid pace through open doors fixed with bottled water as well as open doors without automatic closing devices.

Even if I tried to escape, more than half of the rooms had no stubbornness or could not be used due to poor condition.

Police have sought arrest warrants for four people, including hotel owners and operators, for safety management responsibility.

However, the fire department decided that it was not responsible for the fact that there were no clear installation guidelines for the death of two people due to the overturn of the air mat as the guest jumped.

[Kim Jong-min / Head of the Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency: Judging that the post-war situation where guests jumped out of Room 807 was the strongest.... It's not long after I open the mat and just jump out. That's how urgent it was.]

However, the police will deliver improvements to related agencies in the future as problems have been identified in the operation of fire fighting equipment.

I'm YTN's Shin Gwihye.

Video editing: Shin Soo-young
Design: Baek Seungmin