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The scene of LNG Storage Tank No. 5 at Korea Gas Corporation Tongyeong Base Headquarters, where a fire was reported around 11:51 p.m. on the 30th.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Dong-wook] It was recently confirmed that when a fire broke out at the LNG storage tank of the Korea Gas Corporation Tongyeong Production Base Headquarters at the end of September last year, the base director of the Gas Corporation decided to extinguish the fire on his own after being informed of the incident.

This differs from the previously known fact that a Doosan Heavy Industries site manager, who was in charge of internal maintenance work on the storage tank, failed to report the incident to the construction company and tried to cover it up internally, resulting in a failure of initial response and escalating the fire into a major blaze.

In this regard, while the Gas Corporation has taken a tough stance by filing complaints with the prosecution against Doosan Heavy Industries and other contracted and subcontracted employees and imposing delay penalties, it has been criticized for its lenient punishment of only salary reductions and warnings for two executive employees who violated internal safety guidelines.

According to the Gas Corporation on the 9th, the corporation’s audit office conducted an audit in August on accident and disaster prevention systems and confirmed a total failure in response during the LNG storage tank fire at the Tongyeong headquarters. The audit report detailed the hourly response of Doosan Heavy Industries employees during the fire as well as the movements of the Gas Corporation’s on-site manager.

Investigation results estimate that the fire was caused by sparks from a power cable of the gondola whose insulation had been stripped. Even during an inspection on October 8, eight days after the fire, three cases of damage to the gondola power cable insulation were found, but the inspection results on the same day were all recorded as satisfactory.

On the day of the fire, Doosan Heavy Industries’ contracted personnel and subcontractor employees initially extinguished the fire themselves around 5 p.m. after the first sparks caused the fire in the tank. When the fire reignited at 7:10 p.m., two hours later, they finally informed the Gas Corporation.

This fire information was relayed to the corporation’s fire chief, production officer, and the base director. However, the base director, who had come near the tank, believed only the subcontractor worker’s statement of "extinguishing complete" around 9:10 p.m., even instructing how to extinguish remaining embers before withdrawing from the tank site.

Afterwards, the fire spread uncontrollably around 11:53 p.m., and only then did the corporation report the fire to the fire station. Despite two reignitions (at 7:10 p.m. and around 9:10 p.m.), it was found that the base director did not report anything to the corporation’s headquarters until the fire spread beyond control.

A Gas Corporation official stated, "Disciplinary action against the base director and others who failed to comply with the accident reporting system and improperly commanded and controlled the fire scene will be finally decided through the corporation’s disciplinary committee," adding, "Regarding this fire, the internal reporting system of the in-house fire brigade and the scope of response according to fire suppression capabilities have been clearly and newly reflected in the manual."

Meanwhile, on September 30 last year, a fire broke out during internal opening work on an LNG storage tank at the Korea Gas Corporation Tongyeong Production Base Headquarters. The tank was 50 meters high, 85 meters in diameter, and had a storage capacity of 140,000㎘. Fortunately, most of the gas had been emptied from the tank at the time, preventing a large-scale explosion accident.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.