"Trying to Thaw a Frozen Meter with a Hair Dryer..." A Dizzying Moment

A fire broke out in an apartment in Cheongju while trying to melt the meter with a hairdryer. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Hana Na] Recently, there have been consecutive incidents where attempts to thaw frozen water pipes and meters during the cold wave led to fires.

At around 3:30 PM on the 9th, in the hallway of an apartment in Bongmyeong-dong, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju City, resident A was using a hairdryer to thaw a meter when the hairdryer exploded.

At the time of the accident, A had left the hairdryer on and stepped away briefly, during which the hairdryer exploded and caused a fire. The fire did not spread to the surrounding area, so there were no casualties.

Earlier that day, at around 12:40 PM, in a first-floor restroom of a building in Mochung-dong, Seowon-gu, Cheongju City, building official B was using a hairdryer to thaw a frozen water pipe when a fire broke out.

This accident also occurred while B had fixed the hairdryer in place and left the area.

The fire was extinguished within about 10 minutes by the 119 fire brigade who responded to the fire report, with no casualties.

A fire official emphasized, "As the cold wave below minus 10 degrees Celsius continues for the third day, many people use heating devices to thaw frozen meters or water pipes, but they should not use the devices continuously for a long time, and must never leave the devices on unattended."

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