What happened without retroactive application?

Authorities must pay heed to fire experts’ repeated calls for using fire-retardant mattresses and installing a sprinkler system in lodging facilities before it is too late.

The flame from a hotel in Bucheon city, Gyeonggi, which instantly killed seven people and injured 12 on Monday, was a composite manmade disaster with utter negligence in readiness to fight against fire.

Fire authorities speculate that an electric spark from a faulty air conditioner hanging above a sofa and a bed mattress in a room caused explosive flames that quickly spread along the hallway. Hotels are required to use flame-retardant furniture. But the hotel obviously didn’t meet the requirement, as CCTV footage showed an immediate explosion in the room.

The rooms in the hotel are not equipped with water sprinklers, either. A building above six floors has been bound by a rule to install fire sprinkler systems throughout the building, including rooms, since 2018. The 8-story hotel in the city was built in 2003 before the law was revised to mandate the installation of the sprinkler system. It existed as a danger zone for years because the law cannot be applied retroactively.

Many lodging and hospitality facilities built before 2017 pose a similar threat. According to the National Fire Agency, 1,843 fires took place at lodging facilities across the country from 2019 to 2023, killing 32 people and injuring 355. Fire authorities and the industry stayed negligent on safety despite such repeated accidents.

A 25-year woman’s text message to her mother at the last minute shows the hotel’s vulnerability to fire. Her first text was sent at 7:49 p.m., about 15 minutes after the ignition, suggesting that she had been trapped in the flame and killed in eight minutes, given the time of her last text.

Firefighters’ rescue mission was equally disastrous. A person died after jumping from the 7th floor because the victim missed an emergency inflatable rescue mattress set up by firefighters. Another person died because the mattress overturned. Firefighters shamefully vowed to toughen training on emergency inflatable mattress rescue after the tragic inferno.

The latest fire incident that exposed colossal problems with our society’s preparedness to rescue people during emergencies must serve as a wake-up call. Despite such persistent fires in the past, our safety negligence has not been fixed. Authorities must pay heed to fire experts’ repeated calls for using fire-retardant mattresses and installing a sprinkler system in lodging facilities before it is too late. We are living with disasters if the preventive and post-fire systems are not toughened.