On August 25, a police cordon was installed at the scene of a hotel fire in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, in which seven people were killed and a dozen others injured. Yonhap
The police have launched an investigation into the owner of a hotel in which a fire broke out last week, killing seven people. The accusation: professional negligence, officials announced on Monday.
Police in Gyeonggi Nambu Province arrested the owner of the hotel in Bucheon, west of Seoul, and its nominal manager, both in their 40s, and imposed a travel ban on them after the fire killed seven people and injured a dozen on Thursday.
The fire broke out on the eighth floor of the nine-story hotel. Officials said the fire claimed numerous victims because the hotel had no sprinkler system and smoke spread quickly in the narrow corridors.
Many died of smoke inhalation, but two victims fell to their deaths after jumping onto a rescue air mattress that firefighters had laid out on the ground. Video footage showed the mattress tipping over after one of the two landed on a corner.
Police have so far questioned 15 people as witnesses, including fire survivors and hotel employees, to investigate how the fire started and why it spread so quickly, resulting in many deaths. (Yonhap)
