On Aug. 22, a big fire broke out at a hotel in Bucheon. At that time, the hotel had 57 hotel guests: 39 people staying on the 1st to 6th floors, 11 on the 7th floor where the fire began, and seven on the 8th floor. Six of the 11 people on the 7th floor and one of the seven people on the 8th floor died. The casualties caused by the fire amounted to seven deaths and 11 minor injuries.

Several controversial issues have been raised since the Bucheon Hotel fire incident; the first being the management of aging hotels. Critics point out that the fire grew because the Bucheon Hotel did not have sprinklers. When the hotel’s construction was completed in 2003, it was not subject to sprinkler installation, so it did not have sprinklers. The Bucheon Hotel is not the only hotel without sprinklers. As a result of the inspection, only 47% of accommodation in Busan installed sprinklers. After the fire incident, many hotels have started installing sprinklers, and it seems necessary to revise the law to enforce all accommodations to install sprinklers.

The second is the safety of firefighter’s rescue air mattresses. Two of the seven people died in the Bucheon Hotel after jumping onto an air mattress. They jumped from the 7th floor to the air mattress. However, the air mattress flipped over, and they fell to the floor and died. At that time, an uncertified air mattress was installed and two people died due to the overturned air mattress. This raised suspicions that the fire authorities failed to take appropriate measures. In response, Kim Joon-young, head of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, said, “We are looking into whether there was any problem with the rescue of the multi-way road.”

To prevent incidents like the Bucheon Hotel fire, it is necessary to change the law to install fire alarms and sprinklers. The damage would not have been so severe if the Bucheon Hotel had proper fire alarm systems and sprinklers. And the periodic inspection of the safety of aging hotels is needed. It is also important to know how to deal with a fire. If you need to jump onto an air mattress, you need to jump after the firefighter’s signal instead of jumping recklessly. With this incident, I hope that many accommodation facilities will have a proper fire alarm system, and everyone will be alert to the fire.