Hyundai Department Store executives face possible charges

Chung Ji-sun, group chairman of Hyundai Department Store, apologizes to families of those who died of in the Hyundai Premium Outlet fire, on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

Hyundai Department Store executives could be jailed or fined under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act following a fire at a Hyundai Premium Outlet location that killed seven.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor has initiated an investigation into whether employees of the company, which operates Hyundai Premium Outlet branches, can be punished for violating the act.

A fire broke out Monday in the basement parking lot of a Hyundai Premium Outlet branch in Yuseong District, Daejeon, killing seven and injuring one. They are all employees contracted to work at the mall, and no customers were injured due to the fire starting before the mall opened.

The Serious Accidents Punishment Act covers businesses with 50 or more employees. Under the law, owners of companies, managers and the corporation itself can be charged if they failed to properly implement safety practices and procedures and as casualty resulted from their negligence.

Those found to have violated to the act can be jailed for more than a year or fined up to 1 billion won ($703,000).

An inspection team is looking into whether sprinklers, smoke control systems and other safety measures worked during the fire.

The team will also check if the company made fixes required following a regular safety inspection that took place in June. The mall had to fix an old wire in one of its fire detectors and had to replace old fire alarms and emergency evacuation lights.

Hyundai Department Store says its sprinklers worked considering there was water on the floors when the firefighters were first dispatched to the mall and that all necessary fixes have been made.

A team of personnel from the police, National Forensic Service and Korea Gas Safety Corporation went to analyze the basement parking lot on Tuesday but failed to find the cause of the fire and did not determine whether the sprinklers and fire detectors worked.

In CCTV footage, a delivery truck can be seen parked near the site where the fire broke out. The police said the truck likely had an internal combustion engine as a fuel tank was found in the burned remains. There is no EV charging station near the truck as well.

The team collected wires and other flammable materials that were found around the site and will send them to the National Forensic Service. It will look into whether any of the items caused the fire, with results expected in two weeks.

Chung Ji-sun, group chairman of Hyundai Department Store, visited the site on Tuesday and offered apologies to the families of those killed.

"I would like to offer my deepest condolences and apologies," Chung said. "We will do our best to find the cause and support the bereaved families."

President Yoon Suk-yeol visited the site on Tuesday to offer his condolences and urged government organizations to help prevent similar accidents.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]