"Victims Still at the Scene"... The Unending Tragedy of the Aricell Fire

[Anchor]

Today, June 24, marks the second anniversary of the Aricell factory fire, a disaster that claimed 23 lives. The bereaved families are calling for the recovery of remaining human remains and strict punishment for those responsible, stating that the victims are still trapped at the site of the tragedy.

Reporter Yoo Soo-Hwan has the story.

[Reporter]

The twisted, bent steel bars and the collapsed building debris remain exactly as they were two years ago.

At the second memorial service for the Aricell factory fire, which took 23 lives, sobs erupted throughout the venue as family members spoke.

[Lee Soon-hee / Mother of the late Eom Jeong-jeong: When I pass by someone who looks like my child, I turn around thinking I heard them call 'Mom.' Sometimes, I feel like they will open the door and say, 'I'm home, Mom, give me some food'...]

The families prepared the foods their loved ones enjoyed during their lifetimes and called out their names, pouring their longing into chrysanthemum flowers.

The burden of not being able to send their family members off properly remains their greatest pain.

Due to severe damage to the bodies, only one of the 23 victims was able to have a funeral in a complete state.

[Yeo Guk-hwa / Cousin of the late Lee Hye-ok: It has been two years, but we still haven't found (the remains). We want to find them as soon as possible and send them off properly with our own hands.]

The bereaved families have strongly requested a building safety inspection and the clearing of damaged steel structures to recover the remaining remains, leading Gyeonggi Province and Hwaseong City to begin a review of these measures.

[Kwon Mi-jung / Executive Committee Member of the Aricell Serious Disaster Response Committee: We waited a long time because they said it wasn't safe, and two years have already passed. Seeing the process of recovering remains for the Jeju aircraft disaster victims made us speak out about the things we had buried in our hearts...]

Furthermore, the families criticized the fact that the prison sentence for Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan, who was sentenced to 15 years in the first trial, was significantly reduced to four years in the appellate trial two months ago, and they argued that the Supreme Court must rectify this.

With the recent revelation that CEO Park has even filed a motion for a constitutional review of the 'Serious Accidents Punishment Act,' the families raised their voices, asserting that he shows no remorse whatsoever.

(Video reporting: Yoon Hyung | Video editing: Ahn Yeo-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.