Choi Seong-beom, chief of Yongsan Fire Station, attends a meeting with lawmakers of the Democratic Party of Korea, held at the station, Wednesday. The police have booked Choi for alleged professional negligence resulting in deaths and injuries caused by the Itaewon crowd crush. Yonhap

By Lee Hyo-jin

Police officers and firefighters are crying foul over accusations of negligence in their response to the Itaewon crowd crush disaster on the night of Oct. 29. They claim that they are being scapegoated by related authorities, and urged higher-level government officials to take responsibility instead of passing the buck on to others.

Firefighters are strongly protesting after an independent investigation team at the National Police Agency booked Choi Seong-beom, chief of Yongsan Fire Station, for alleged professional negligence resulting in injuries and deaths.

The probe team seeks to investigate why Choi did not swiftly issue a level 2 response order, which would have mobilized additional rescue resources from nearby stations.

However, the firefighters claimed that Choi should not take the blame as he was one of the first officials to arrive on the scene at around 10:28 p.m., 13 minutes after the first emergency call was made, even though he was not on duty that day.

"Frankly speaking, I don't think I would have done better than Choi if I was at the scene. But seeing as how the police have booked him, I don't understand what more we should have done," Kim Joo-hyung, head of the firefighter's labor union said during an interview on local radio.

Lee Eun-joo, an official at Yongsan Fire Station, lamented that her colleagues are becoming victims themselves despite giving their utmost efforts to rescue as many lives as possible during the tragedy.

"Our colleagues didn't walk at all (at the scene). They kept running. I'm afraid that their efforts will be ignored," she said during a meeting with lawmakers of the Democratic Party of Korea, Wednesday.

Police officers are seen near the alley in Itaewon, Nov. 4, where the crowd crush occurred. Yonhap

Law enforcement officers are also complaining that they too are being wronged in this blame game situation after the tragedy.

During a meeting with Cabinet members, Tuesday, President Yoon Suk-yeol lashed out at the police for their negligent response to the disaster.

"It was assumed that the situation was chaotic after the police received an initial call at around 6:34 p.m. How can you say that the police have no authority to control the situation?" he was quoted as saying, refuting the law enforcement's previous explanation that by law, the police cannot control crowd gatherings that are not reported and approved in advance.

Following this, a police officer said that the central government should bear more responsibility.

"I'm not trying to say that we are free of any responsibility. But under the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety, the central and local governments are responsible for the prevention of disasters, while the fire department is in charge of rescue operations in disasters," a police officer wrote anonymously in a national online police officer community forum.

Meanwhile, the special investigation team is speeding up its activities into the handling of the massive crowd crush disaster.

The officers have conducted operations to seize evidence from about 55 offices and facilities including Yongsan District Office, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA), Seoul Metro headquarters, as well as the Hamilton Hotel located along the alley where the crowd crush occurred in Itaewon. The hotel is being accused of illegally expanding its terrace, making the alleyway even narrower.

The police have so far booked Choi of the Yongsan Fire Station, Lee Im-jae, former head of Yongsan Police Station, along with two more officers from the station, Ryu Mi-jin, an SMPA officer who was in charge of the situation room that night, Park Hee-young, head of Yongsan District Office and the CEO of Hamilton Hotel.