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The Special Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency, which is investigating the suspect in the October 29 disaster, openly cited the theory of responsibility of Yongsan Fire Chief Choi Seong-beom.
It is claimed that Chief Choi responded very passively during the so-called “golden period” for 40 minutes, adding to the damage.
Chief Choi immediately refuted.
This is reporter Guna Yeon.
◀ Report ▶
The Special Investigations Headquarters is seeking an arrest warrant for Yongsan Fire Chief Choi Seong-beom, who was in charge of the rescue the day of the disaster.
“Chief Choi’s poor rescue command became a major cause of the damage,” he said, unusually aiming directly at Chief Choi’s responsibility.
At that moment, Chief Choi arrived on the scene at 22:28 and declared field command at 23:08.
The special edition said that during these 40 minutes, Chief Choi did not appear to have taken any action other than listening to the radio or talking to the on-site command team leader.
It is not clear what active relief measures Chief Choi took in the so-called “golden age”, when the number of dead could have been reduced even slightly.
The special edition explained: “It is confirmed at 11:22 pm that all people in the alley have been taken out” and “If Chief Choi had answered appropriately, they would have been taken out sooner.”
In addition, it was added that the classification of emergency patients at the site was not done properly, and Chief Choi’s inappropriate actions were that the deceased were mainly transferred to the nearest Soonchunhyang Hospital.
In this regard, Chief Choi refuted in a phone call with MBC, “Even before the command statement, I ordered firefighters to initiate a rescue from the bottom of the street and ordered crowd control.”
Furthermore, he pointed out, “Besides being confirmed on the radio or in the transcript, there are many verbal instructions to the command team leader who was with us.”
Earlier, Chief Choi indirectly hinted at the responsibility of the police during the investigation of the scene by the government’s Special Investigation Committee.
[최성범/용산소방서장 (어제)]
“The problem now is that I kept asking, and it was probably a situation where police officers rushed in because traffic was blocked here. Our firefighters did the same.”
Tomorrow morning, the arrest warrant review will be held for former Yongsan Police Station chief Lee Im-jae and former Yongsan Police Station 112 Situation Chief Song Mo, who have re-applied for a warrant of arrest two weeks after the dismissal.
This is Koo Yeon from MBC News.
Video Editing: Nayeon Kwon
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