City World Fire May Have Been Triggered by Explosion in Oil Tank

The Daegu Suseong Police which are investigating the fire at the City World Public Sauna building in Suseong-dong, Suseong-gu, Daegu, announced on September 4 that after an on-the-spot investigation along with six other agencies, including the National Institute of Scientific Investigation (NISI) and the Fire Services, it presumed that the fire broke out with an explosion at the oil tank room four meters away from the underground boiler room of the building.

“Considering that the welded part of the oil exhaust pipe, which lets out oil steam (vaporized oil) formed inside, has widened, the gasified oil that leaked out from this seems to have been ignited by an external flame with an unidentified source,” said a police official.

The police will conduct a second close identification of the fire site on September 5.

The casualty toll from the fire incident was five dead and 55 injured.

Victims of the fire, however, are unlikely to get compensation as its fire insurance contract was terminated when the former owner of the five-story building recently transferred its ownership to a redevelopment agency. All this is widely expected to rouse strong protests from the sufferers and the bereaved.

Yong-Kyun Jeong cavatina@donga.com