'Gwangju Collapse Accident' Victims' Families Request "Allow Us to Monitor Hyundai Construction Site"

"Hyunsan, Delay in Rescue Operations Due to Lack of Workforce Reinforcement"

On the morning of the 23rd, near the site of the collapse accident at the Hyundai Industrial Development I-Park apartment construction in Hwajeong-dong, Seo-gu, Gwangju, the 'Collapse Victims' Families Council' expressed their position regarding the dismantling of the tower crane and delays in the search efforts.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Cho Hyung-joo] The 'Collapse Victims' Families Council' regarding the collapse accident at the Gwangju Hwajeong-dong Hyundai Development Company apartment construction site demanded active search and rescue cooperation from HDC Hyundai Development Company, stating, "We requested to enter the rescue site directly to monitor the work being done by Hyundai Development Company."

On the 23rd, Ahn, the representative of the Collapse Victims' Families Council, held a press conference near the accident site and expressed frustration, saying, "I protested to the countermeasures headquarters because it was unfair. They said they would work at night the previous day, but no personnel from Hyundai Development Company came, so no rescue activities took place."

He claimed that although they were notified that work would proceed at night once the building stabilization reached a certain level, the rescue work was delayed because Hyundai Development Company did not supplement the workforce.

Representative Ahn said, "The fire department said they would conduct rescue activities at night if Hyundai Development Company helped break the stones the previous day, but until 10 p.m., the personnel provided by Hyundai Development Company were not deployed for night work, so the firefighters were waiting, and Hyundai Development Company did not send personnel," expressing his frustration.

He added, "Hyundai Development Company only conducts rescue during working hours," and said, "Hyundai Development Company said they had to comply with the 'Labor Standards Act,' so they only deployed personnel during working hours."

The victims' families explained that communication between Hyundai Development Company, the fire department, and related agencies was not properly conducted, causing setbacks in the search operations.

They continued, "We never told them to quickly remove those huge rocks, nor did we forcefully demand that the rescuers and workers be deployed," but criticized, "However, they are not even doing the minimum work they can."

Representative Ahn stated, "Therefore, we requested to enter the site ourselves to monitor the work Hyundai Development Company is doing on-site," but said, "The only response was that they would review it for safety reasons."

Meanwhile, at around 3:46 p.m. on the 11th, the exterior walls of the 23rd to 38th floors of Building 201 collapsed at the apartment construction site.

As a result, one worker was found dead, and five people remain missing. They are presumed to have been responsible for window and fire-fighting equipment installation work on the 28th to 34th floors of the collapsed building.

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