'One Firefighter Killed': 5 Years Later, Dangerous Maze Remains Unchanged

[Anchor]

Five years ago, during the fire at the Coupang logistics center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, which claimed the life of one firefighter, the blaze took six days to be brought under control, resulting in significant damage. Despite repeated warnings after every incident that the structure of stacking goods floor-to-ceiling is vulnerable to fire, nothing has changed.

Reporter Je Hui-won has the story.

[Reporter]

This is footage taken inside another Coupang logistics center in Incheon in June 2024.

Between the layers of stacked goods, yellow stairs are visible. Climbing these stairs leads to a multi-level space that Coupang employees call a "mezzanine floor."

While the structure maximizes space efficiency to store more goods in the same area, it is inevitably vulnerable to fire.

[Person A/Employee at Incheon Coupang Logistics Center: When I worked there, I would sometimes smell something like burning electricity. When I asked the manager, 'Isn't this a burning smell?', they would say, 'It's nothing special.']

On-site workers stated that with shelves packed tightly and aisles only 1.3 meters wide, the structure is easy for temporary workers to get lost in, making it difficult to respond in the event of a fire.

[Jung Sung-yong/Head of the National Logistics Center Branch of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union: It is a maze-like structure. Even workers who have been there for a long time find it difficult to identify emergency exits and escape routes.]

Workers consistently argue that the Incheon logistics center where the recent fire occurred has a similar structure, making the fire risk inevitably high.

[Person B/Employee at Incheon Coupang Logistics Center: There is a high risk of fire. Electric fans run 24 hours a day. I have been working here for four years, and it seems nothing has really been improved so far.]

Five years ago, during the fire at the Coupang Deokpyeong logistics center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province—where fire compartment regulations under the Building Act were relaxed due to the installation of automated equipment and mezzanine floors—some 16 million items acted as kindling. The fire consumed the entire building and was extinguished only after 136 hours, resulting in the death of one firefighter and over 300 billion won in damages.

Amid growing criticism over the repetition of similar disasters, Coupang did not provide any response to SBS's questions regarding what safety equipment, if any, had been reinforced at the Incheon logistics center since the fire five years ago.

(Video reporting: Kim Seung-tae, Kim Han-gyeol | Video editing: Jang Hyun-ki | Design: Seo Seung-hyun)

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