Earticle

As society becomes increasingly sophisticated and new energy sources proliferate, human and property damage due to fire is on the rise, emphasizing the importance of fire investigation results alongside changes in the legal environment (e.g., amendments to the Product Liability Act and the Act on Liability for Fires). This study analyzes a major fire incident at the E-Land Fashion Logistics Center in Cheonan, Chungnam, in November 2025, focusing on electrical factors at the presumed ignition point—the eastern end of the 3rd floor. To enhance the professionalism of the cause determination process, a deductive approach was used to establish the highest-priority hypothesis, and the prismatic investigation method was applied for a multi-dimensional cross-verification of the ignition and fire spread causes. Furthermore, the 5-Why analysis technique was employed to move beyond simple symptomatic causes and derive the Root Cause: 'Minimization of safety investment to ensure competitive advantage.' Finally, we propose a three-stage structural safety countermeasure—technical, managerial, and institutional —to address the identified Root Cause, suggesting the necessity of enacting a logistics-facility-specific safety law (tentatively titled: Special Act on Fire Safety and Maintenance of Logistics Facilities). This study aims to contribute to a paradigm shift in the safety of large-scale logistics facilities.

This study conducts a reproduction experiment to identify the cause of the fire in relation to the fire in Hadong around 10:54 am on August 13, 2023. Based on the results of the experiment, the thesis topic was selected. The place where the fire broke out was a wooden workshop and many oils were used. we focused on comparing the fire hazard of linseed oil and mineral oil, the spontaneous ignition experiment of linseed oil, and the carbonization form by spontaneous ignition with the carbonization form by cigarette butts to determine the cause of wood-sharing fires. At the time of the fire, the dryer was used in consideration of the indoor temperature, and the spontaneous ignition of the linseed oil and the mineral oil was tested. The cigarette butts were directly contacted with the cloth with the linseed oil to observe the ignition and compare the carbonized cloth and carbonized shape collected at the fire site. As a result of the experiment, the linseed oil was spontaneous ignited in a specific environment, and the traces of carbide between cigarette butts and spontaneous ignition were found to be different.

The world is rapidly changing through the fourth industrial revolution. Representative technologies of the 4th industrial revolution include artificial intelligence, IoT, big data, and mobile technologies. In this study, by using artificial intelligence chatbot and augmented reality glasses, we sought ways to easily and quickly search necessary information at fire sites, identify the cause of fire based on accurate data, and improve work efficiency by utilizing it. In addition, we created a chatbot for firefighting, experimented with its usefulness at the fire site, and make a chatbot to continuously build fire site data so that we can receive data anytime, anywhere in real time.

Individual switch-type power strips are among the most commonly used electrical devices in everyday life. As the number of electrical appliances increases, they have become essential. However, the number of related fires has also been rising, prompting case studies and reproduction experiments to determine the cause. The results showed that some fires occurred due to poor design of certain individual switches and due to users’ incorrect assumptions that led to misuse. Therefore, this study aims to identify the design problems and prevent user cognitive errors.