"Gym where 9 victims of the Daejeon factory fire were found was an unauthorized extension"

[Financial News] As of 1:00 p.m. on the 21st, the fire at the Anjeon Industrial auto parts factory in Daedeok District, Daejeon Metropolitan City, which occurred on the 20th, has left 11 people dead. Authorities have determined that the gym on the third floor of the factory’s east wing, where nine of the victims were found, was an illegally extended space.
An official from the Daedeok District architecture division said at a press briefing held at the fire scene, "The second floor of the factory’s east wing, where the nine victims were found, was a mezzanine-style gym," adding, "This space does not appear on the approved drawings or in the building register and appears to be effectively an unlicensed addition."
The official explained that the gym appears to have been created during a factory expansion by enclosing part of the sloped stairwell area between the second and third floors, originally used to access the parking lot.
Of the 11 bodies recovered so far, one was found at 11:03 p.m. the previous day at the entrance to a break room on the second floor of the east wing. Nine were discovered at 12:20 a.m. the same day near the windows of the mezzanine gym on the second floor of the same building. The remaining one was recovered at 12:10 p.m. that day in the men’s restroom on the first floor of the east wing.
Anjeon Industrial has a total floor area of 19,730 square meters. The main building was completed in 1996, two additional factory buildings were newly constructed in 2010, and the site underwent two further expansions in 2011 and 2014.
Fire authorities believe the blaze spread rapidly because the site contained large amounts of oil-based substances, including cutting oil used in factory equipment and production, as well as sludge that had accumulated inside the pipes.
Fire officials currently estimate that the fire initially broke out on the first floor. They are continuing to investigate the exact point of origin and the precise time the fire started.
kwj5797@fnnews.com Reporter Kim Won-jun Reporter