Just nine days after two elementary school sisters were killed in a fire in Busanjin-gu, another fatal apartment fire in Busan has claimed the lives of two young sisters — again while their parents were away and again in a building without sprinklers.
According to the Busan Fire and Disaster Headquarters, a fire broke out at 10:58 pm on July 2 in a 13-story apartment in Gijang-gun, killing two sisters, aged 9 and 6.
The children were found near the veranda and front door, apparently trying to escape. Despite emergency rescue efforts, both died after being transported to the hospital.
Earlier that day, the apartment experienced two power outages. The children’s mother, after washing them at a relative’s home, left briefly at 10:24 pm, just 30 minutes before the fire started.
The cause is believed to be electrical, possibly from a short circuit in the air conditioner’s power strip, which was confirmed as the point of origin by investigators. This echoes the earlier incident in Gaekum-dong on June 24, where two sisters also died in a fire presumed to have been caused by an overheated power strip in the living room.
In both incidents, no sprinklers were installed. Current fire safety laws only mandate sprinkler systems in buildings 16 stories or higher (post-1990) or 11 stories or higher (post-2005). The Busanjin-gu apartment (20 stories, built in 1994) and the Gijang-gun apartment (13 stories, built in 2007) were exempt based on when their building permits were issued.
Adding to the controversy, the Gijang-gun apartment had been excluded from a recent national emergency fire safety inspection targeting buildings without sprinkler systems, which was conducted in response to the earlier Busanjin-gu fire.
Data from the National Fire Information System shows a spike in electrical fires during the summer. In July and August last year, Busan recorded 26 fires caused by overload or overcurrent, and 37 fires from short circuits due to poor connections or foreign substances, much higher than in cooler months.
