Girls aged 8, 6 sustain fatal injuries while both of their parents were out working
Two girls aged 8 and 6 were killed in an apartment fire that occurred Wednesday night, in an echo of a similar tragedy that happened last week.
The fire, whose origin is not yet known, occurred at around 10:58 p.m. at the sixth-floor unit of an apartment complex in Gijang-gun, Busan, according to the Busan Fire Services.
Firefighters who arrived on the scene pried opened the door and found the two young victims, lying on the floor unconscious.
The younger of the sisters was found near the front door, while her sister was found in front of the balcony. They were taken to a hospital for emergency medical treatment, but were ultimately pronounced dead.
Police investigation found that neither of their parents were home when the tragedy struck. The sisters were brought home 20 minutes before the disaster by their mother, who left two minutes later.
The fire led to evacuation of 100 residents of the apartment complex, inflicting about 28 million won ($20,641) worth of damage to the building. Police found that the apartment building did not have a sprinkler system, but its fire alarm system was functional.
Local police and fire authorities are conducting investigation to determine the exact cause of the fire, with police having yet to find any indications of criminal intent as of Thursday morning. Testimonies from the residents showed that there had been repeated power failures for 2 1/2 hours before the fire, although it is unclear whether they were connected to the flames.
Many children left alone at home
A similar incident occurred in the same city barely a week before, when an apartment fire killed two girls aged 7 and 10 in in Busanjin-gu on June 24 at around 4:15 a.m.
The parents of the children were out working.
South Korea law does not have a clause banning parents from leaving their children alone at home.
A growing population of locals are opting to use help for child care in their absence, with local babysitter service Mom-Sitter accumulating 1.44 million users as of July. But a substantial portion of the population still leave their children at home unattended for at least few hours a day, particularly if both parents have jobs.
A 2020 report by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, showed that 93.8 percent of the respondents did not leave their young children — those who did not start school —alone at home, but children who were left alone spent a daily average of 152.1 minutes by themselves.
Among parents of elementary school students, 38.3 percent said they leave their children alone for an average of 285.2 minutes a day, while 72.3 percent of middle and high school students were left without supervision for a daily average of 331.4 minutes.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
