Evidence Secured to Determine Cause of Fire... On-Site Inspection Conducted at Coupang Logistics Center

[Anchor]

A joint on-site inspection has been conducted at the Incheon Coupang Logistics Center, where a fire was finally extinguished after 109 hours. Authorities stated that they secured evidence on the sixth floor, where the blaze is believed to have started, to uncover the cause of the fire.

Reporting by Kim Gyu-ri.

[Reporter]

Fire investigation teams, police, and relevant agencies have gathered on the first floor of the Coupang Logistics Center in Seoknam-dong, Incheon.

The joint inspection, which began at 10 a.m., involved around 30 personnel from 10 agencies, including the National Forensic Service and the Korea Safety Technology Corporation.

This comes six days after the fire was completely extinguished around 8:30 p.m. on the 22nd, 109 hours after it first broke out.

The joint investigation team announced that it collected evidence from the ignition point on the sixth floor that points to potential electrical causes, such as batteries.

[Kim Soo-young / Researcher, National Fire Research Institute: There are home appliances on the shelves, and rechargeable batteries are built into all of them.]

The fire authorities noted that the fire is believed to have started in the middle tier of the sixth floor, which features a multi-level mezzanine structure.

[Lee Gi-yeol / Head of Fire Response Investigation Division, National Fire Agency: The mezzanine structure consists of three levels. It is right in front of the stairs on the second level.]

To verify what items were stored on the shelf where the fire is suspected to have begun, authorities sent some of the debris to the National Forensic Service for detailed analysis.

The police, who have formed a dedicated team of about 30 personnel to investigate the cause of the fire, summoned Coupang officials, including the initial reporter, as reference witnesses last week.

The police also requested cooperation from Coupang to secure CCTV footage that can show the situation prior to the outbreak.

They also plan to reference the case of the Icheon Coupang Logistics Center fire in Gyeonggi Province from five years ago, where initial containment was delayed because some employees repeatedly turned off fire alarms.

(Camera Reporter: Kim Han-gyeol | Video Editor: Ahn Yeo-jin | Designer: Lim Chan-hyeok)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.