Police and fire authorities said Sunday that an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the fire that claimed four lives and injured 47 people on Saturday at a shopping mall in Dongtan, on Seoul’s Southern outskirts.
Police suspect a cutting machine used during the welding work may have caused the blaze. Oxygen-assisted cutting machines and gas cylinders collected from the site have been sent to the National Institute of Scientific Investigation for detailed analysis, the police said in a briefing Sunday. Results will be released in two weeks.
Saturday’s fire started at a 264-square-metre indoor amusement park for kids inside Dongtan Metapolis in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. Metapolis is a gigantic residential and commercial complex constructed in 2010 consisting of two 66-story buildings, one 60-story tower, another with 55 stories and a commercial four-story building. A total of 1,266 households live there.
The kids’ facility, located on the third floor of the commercial building, was being renovated and was full of combustible material, fire authorities said.
