Suspects Questioned in Icheon Fire Probe

Police yesterday questioned several figures connected to the fire at a refrigerated warehouse in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, in which dozens were killed.

An exit ban has been placed for the president of Korea 2000, Ltd., the owner of the warehouse. Police are also probing if the company legally got a business license for the warehouse.

Sixteen of the dead have had their identities confirmed, and police will seek to identify 24 more through DNA testing.

Civil servants to undergo fraud probe

The investigation headquarters of the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency said, “The result of the first investigation at the scene indicates that the fire started not in the machine room, but 13 refrigerated storage units at the left end of the warehouse. We found some marks of fire ignition.”

Police said they interrogated a worker cited in a Korea 2000 daily work report who had worked on doors protecting against heat. The worker said he did not do welding on the day of the accident, but police say they will continue to focus on the possibility of welding done that day, given the potential of false testimony.

The warehouse was confirmed to have received a business license before an official sanction allowing the diversion of the land use was granted. Police examined documents handed over by the Icheon city government to look for regulatory violations in the process of the license’s issuance.

According to police, Icheon granted Korea 2000 a license for the refrigerated warehouse in June 2000, two months before the diversion of land use was sanctioned, on the condition that the company seek and receive official permission for the land.

The city government also failed to cancel the license when Korea 2000 did not operate its business for five years. The company had gotten permission to use farmland for industrial purposes in August 2002.

The Agricultural Land Act says a construction project must start within two years after permission is granted and must not stop for more than one year. If these occur, the executive agency must withdraw the license.

“I gather that the license was granted on a conditional basis because no particular problem was assessed,” an Icheon official said. “The license for the land use was not canceled because the company continued development.”

Possibility of faulty construction-

As the investigation has indicated that the warehouse was full of toxic steam before the fire, ventilators on the warehouse blueprint might not have been working through the day of accident.

The Korea 2000 daily work report shows that the air conditioner installation company Hanwoo worked on ventilator installation from December 29 last year through Sunday, a day before the accident.

A construction industry source said, “Only after a test operation is completed can ventilators be operated. Thus, I suspect that Korea 2000 resorted to a temporary plan even on the day of the accident.”

The possibility of shoddy and fault construction is even greater given that the enforcement, construction and supervision of the warehouse were all done by the same parent company.

The president of Korea 2000, identified only as “Gong,” is also the chief of the construction company and the Korea 2000 construction office, the supervisor of the warehouse.

On November 6 last year, one day after the warehouse was approved for use, Gong applied to the Icheon city government for tax benefits, which saved his company 260 million won.