Man Arrested for Accidentally Setting Deadly Uijongbu Apartment Fire with His Motorcycle
The cause of an apartment fire that killed three and injured dozens more in Uijongbu is being blamed on something as stupid as this:
An arrest warrant has been requested for a 53-year-old man who allegedly caused a massive fire at an apartment building in a Seoul suburb that killed four people and injured scores of others, police said Tuesday.
The man, identified only by his surname Kim, faces charges of manslaughter, assault without intent and causing a fire without intent, the Uijeongbu Police Station in this city just north of Seoul said.
Police believe the fire at the 10-story Daebong Green Apartment on Jan. 10 started when Kim held a flame up to the ignition of his motorcycle parked outside the apartment. He reportedly did this to take out the key that had frozen inside the ignition.
What Kim did not notice, however, was that he was also melting the sheaths of the ignition line, which created a spark and quickly developed into an inferno that injured 126 people, police said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but yet another major disaster caused by a lack of public safety awareness.
Doesn’t really jive unless he had a habit of soaking his bike in kerosene or something. How can a small flame and melted plastic start a fire that erupts into an inferno? Why do they say “held a flame”? Why not “used his lighter”? What type of device was he using to make this flame? What’s it going to take to get it through the average Korean’s head that they need to change the way they do stuff? Who am I talking to?
Smokes, I was thinking the same thing.
As I looked around local apartments and tried to theorize how to intentionally set them on fire with a burning motorcycle, I found that is probably not an easy thing to do.
I’d have to see this to believe it.
– motorcycle fires are not that big (according to internet pictures)
– motorcycles aren’t parked that close anything flammable in front of apartments (in my area)
– concrete apartments are hard to start on fire even with a burning motorcycle parked in front of the elevator
– motorcycle keys are not near gas hoses
– shorted ignition lines “creating a spark” is a dubious excuse for making a fire, even if touching plastic
– melted ignition lines shorting out and getting hot should blow a fuse (unless there is a paper clip in the fuse box from last winter when ajushi first melted the ignition lines which are now wrapped in a plastic bag and green tape)
There must be some other factor(s) the “news” doesn’t know or isn’t saying. This does not add up at all.
he probably threw gasoline on it trying to put it out.