Funeral Held Today for Late Fire Inspector Kim Jin-seok... Factory CEO Booked

[Anchor]

The funeral for the late Fire Inspector Kim Jin-seok, who died in the line of duty during a factory fire in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, is being held this morning (October 19). Police have booked the CEO of the factory where the fire broke out and are investigating whether there was any negligence.

Our first report comes from reporter Kim Gyu-ri.

[Reporter]

Despite the harsh weather with strong winds and heavy rain, mourners continued to visit the wake of the late Fire Inspector Kim Jin-seok to bid him a final farewell.

Fellow firefighters from across the country paid their respects with heavy hearts, wearing black mourning ribbons.

A fellow firefighter and academy classmate could not hide his profound grief at the mortuary.

[Colleague and Academy Classmate of Late Fire Inspector Kim Jin-seok: We always said at the scene that no news is good news, and that was for the best, but none of us knew it would turn out like this... At first, we among ourselves even denied it...]

Placed in front of Inspector Kim's portrait was a letter and drawing written by his young daughter, who is set to enter elementary school early next year.

The daughter's final farewell saying that she still misses her dad so much and hopes to meet him again someday broke the hearts of those watching.

The police, who have launched a full-scale investigation, have been successively calling in the factory CEO and employees for questioning, and booked the factory CEO yesterday on charges of professional negligence resulting in injury and accidental fire due to occupational negligence.

Police are focusing on whether proper management was carried out in the cleaning room, which has been pointed out as the initial point of ignition.

The special judicial police for firefighting are also investigating the hazardous materials used at the facility, based on the fact that the company has no history of obtaining a permit to handle hazardous materials.

The funeral for Inspector Kim will take place at 9:30 a.m. today at the Bucheon Indoor Gymnasium as a Gyeonggi Provincial Government funeral, after which he will be laid to rest at the Seoul National Cemetery.

(Video by: Lee Byeong-ju, Bae Mun-san)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.