Police seek arrest warrants for welders in warehouse fire

ICHEON, South Korea, Dec. 7 (Yonhap) -- Police on Sunday requested an arrest warrant for two welders suspected of causing a large fire in a cold storage warehouse south of Seoul that left seven dead and five injured.

The two men, identified only by their surnames Kang and Nam, were welding a
basement gate Friday in the warehouse in Icheon, 60 km south of Seoul, when the
sparks jumped to combustible material and caught fire.
Police found one missing worker, identified as Lee Hyeon-seok, out of the debris
on Sunday, bring to seven the number of dead.
"Small bursts of the flame are still burning materials stored up in the
warehouse, and it is feared to be at risk of collapse," a police officer said.
Arrest warrants were requested for Kang and Nam, who were detained on Saturday,
on charges of manslaughter by gross negligence on duty, police said.
The accident occurred less than a year after a similar warehouse fire killed 40
dead in the same town in January.
Police said that like the previous accident, the lack or malfunctioning of
firefighting equipment and emergency exits increased the casualties.
Officials sought to establish compensation plans for the victims. A Singaporean
owner of the warehouse, called Ascendas Korea, signed a property insurance deal
worth 37.6 billion won (US$25.5 million) with South Korea's Hyundai Marine & Fire
Insurance last month, but it covers only the building and machinery inside, not
human victims, according to the local government.
In the January accident, an average of 240 million won was provided to each
family of the victims.
Police planned to question the building managers and its subcontractors over
negligence allegations.
Icheon is home to many warehouses, due to its proximity to Seoul.