Gyeonggi Fire Department Analyzes Fire Cause to Reveal Vehicle Defect... Firefighter Yang Won-seok in Yongin

Yang Won-seok, Fire Sergeant

A fire investigator from the Gyeonggi-do Fire and Disaster Headquarters has gained attention for analyzing the cause of a fire and identifying a vehicle defect.

On the 17th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport acknowledged the defect in vehicle A based on the fire scene investigation report and technical analysis sent by Yang Won-seok (44), a fire investigator at the Yongin Fire Station. They decided on a voluntary recall for 83,574 units of vehicle A produced between July 2005 and December 2010.

Yang Won-seok had previously witnessed a fire in the engine compartment of vehicle A, manufactured by a domestic company, in the parking lot of his apartment in Yongin in 2021. After transferring to the Yongin Fire Station, he received reports of two additional engine compartment fires involving vehicle A in the Yongin area by the first half of last year.

Suspicious of these incidents, Yang began a comprehensive investigation of 17 vehicle A fires that occurred in the Gyeonggi region over a decade, from December 2014 to June 2023. He confirmed that fires were caused by faulty grounding wiring connected to the Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) module in vehicle A models from 2005 to 2016. Subsequently, in July last year, Yang requested the Korea Transportation Safety Authority to review compensation for the defect, which led to the recall action by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

In an official letter to the Yongin Fire Station, the Korea Transportation Safety Authority recognized Yang’s contribution, stating, "We appreciate your active cooperation in preventing vehicle fires and ask for continued collaboration in sharing information and joint investigations to prevent recurrence of fires suspected to be caused by vehicle defects."

Yang said, "I felt a sense of accomplishment as a fire investigator with the confirmation of the vehicle defect and the decision for a large-scale recall. I hope to continue contributing, even if just a little, to fire prevention through accurate analysis of fire causes."

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