The fire killed 29 people in Jecheon may have had such a high death toll because of a number of factors to include a broken emergency exit door:
This photo, provided by Fire Prevention News on Dec. 23, 2017, shows traces left by victims of a deadly blaze at a gym in Jecheon, some 170 kilometers southeast of Seoul, near the emergency exit on the second floor where 20 out of 29 dead were found. The fire took place at the eight-story sports center on Dec. 21. (Yonhap)
Witnesses also pointed to insufficient emergency exits and illegally parked cars that caused a delay in putting out the fire by blocking fire trucks’ access to the building.
The incident is invoking comparisons with a fire which erupted three years ago at an apartment in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province. The building also contained the flammable material and was constructed in a similar style.
Police will also look into whether the building was properly managed, including the maintenance of sprinklers and other fire prevention facilities. Some reportedly testified that the exit door of the sauna, located on the second and third floors, had been broken. Twenty of the 29 people who died were using the facility when the fire erupted. [Korea Times]
I have personally seen fire exits chained before in Korean buildings so the fact that the exit door from the sauna was not working and no one bothered to repair it is not surprising to me. Additionally it has been discovered that the building’s design and materials used caused it to be an increased fire hazard.
Then to make matters the firefighters appeared to be totally unprepared to deal with such a large fire:
The burned building and its surroundings are covered in soot. / Yonhap
Firefighters have been criticized for not acting fast enough to save the 29 people killed in a fire that engulfed an eight-story commercial building in Jecheon on Thursday.
Witnesses said firefighters did not break the windows of the North Chungcheong Province building to allow people to escape but only used their hoses from the outside.
A victim’s husband, in his late 50s, cried that his wife struggled to break out of the building for so long that when he reached her body she no longer had fingerprints. The heartbroken man blamed firefighters for not breaking the windows to let people out.
Firefighters from the Chungbuk Fire Service Headquarters entered the second floor, where 20 of the deaths occurred, 40 minutes after arriving. Many of the victims were in the women’s sauna room in a public bathhouse.
City fire emergency service Chief Lee Sang-min said firefighters could not promptly reach the second floor because cars parked around the building were on fire and there was a danger of gas explosions.
Rescuers also were criticized for the delay in positioning a ladder platform fire engine. If it were not for a private firm sending a ladder truck, there might have been more deaths, reports said.
The fire engine was delayed about 30 minutes and saved only one person trapped high in the building while the private truck saved three on the eighth floor.
Lee said the ladder platform arrived late because of parked cars at the site. [Korea Times]
That is pretty sad when a private company was able to get a ladder truck to rescue people before the fire department and saved more lives.
So I wonder if the Korean left will blame President Moon for the slow rescue response, lax safety standards, and demand that he should have personally been on site to direct the rescue like they did to former President Park after the Sewol Ferry Boat sinking? Of course they won’t because the criticism was all politically motivated. There was nothing President Park could have done to rescue the people on the Sewol just like there was nothing President Moon could do to rescue people at this fire. I suspect we will hear little else about this fire and the lax safety culture in Korea will continue which there is a lot of blame to go around for that.
President Moon Jae-in made a surprise trip to the site of a tragic fire in the small southeastern city of Jecheon Friday.
This is a really horrible fire that killed 29 people and injured 20 more:
Firefighters battle a blaze at an eight-story fitness building in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, Thursday. / Yonhap
Twenty-nine people were killed and more than 20 injured Thursday in an afternoon blaze in a building in Jecheon, some 170 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The Chungbuk Fire Service Headquarters said the blaze began in the basement parking lot of an eight-story building at 3:53 p.m. The fire quickly spread through the building housing a fitness center, driving range, public sauna and restaurants.
Fire officials said most of the victims were in the sauna as they were trapped inside of the public bath on the second floor. They said 15 people, including a 50-year-old woman surnamed Kim, were found dead in the sauna.
Twenty people were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. [Korea Times]
It will be interesting to see if this was just some kind of sad coincidence or whether some kind of bacteria or mechanical function of the equipment used for pre-mature babies is to blame:
Chung Hye-won, director of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Ewha Womans University Medical Center in western Seoul, apologizes in a press briefing at the hospital on Sunday for the deaths of four newborn babies at the hospital on Saturday night. [YONHAP]Four newborn babies died within a two-hour span at Ewha Womans University Medical Center in Seoul on Saturday night. Authorities are investigating the cause.“We apologize to the relatives of the babies and to everyone in this country,” said Chung Hye-won, director of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the hospital, in a press briefing at the hospital on Sunday. “Four babies being treated at the intensive care unit for the newborns at the hospital suffered sudden cardiac arrest at differing times, starting from around 5:40 p.m. on Saturday.
“We tried to revive the babies through CPR but could not,” she said. “The hospital is working with public health centers and authorities to find out the cause of their deaths. We apologize again to the relatives for this unfortunate and rare incident and promise to do our best to find out the cause behind it.”
Authorities requested the National Forensic Service conduct autopsies on the four dead infants to find out the cause of their deaths. The autopsies are scheduled to be held Monday morning. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but regardless of the cause it is a very sad day and condolences to all the parents involved.
Condolences to the friends and family of the USFK soldier killed in a recent traffic accident in South Korea:
A U.S. soldier from the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade in South Korea was killed in a vehicle accident, police said Friday, Dec. 8, 2017.
A U.S. soldier was killed when a truck slammed into a military ambulance and a car that had pulled over to the side of a highway after an earlier collision south of Seoul, officials said Friday.
The Eighth Army confirmed that a 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade soldier died of injuries suffered in a vehicle accident. The soldier was not further identified pending family notification.
“Medical aid was provided on the scene until the soldier was transported via ambulance to the Good Morning Hospital,” the 8th Army said in a statement. “The incident is under investigation.” (…..)
The deadly chain of events began when a car rear-ended the U.S. military vehicle on an interchange, prompting the soldier to get out to examine the damage. An 8-ton cargo truck then slammed into them, according to the regional fire service. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but imagine what the response would have been if it was a US soldier that killed a Korean civilian in a traffic accident? The usual suspects would be protesting and demanding apologies from the US President.
A deadly maritime accident occurred over the weekend in the waters near Incheon:
Authorities search the waters near the fishing boat that collided with an oil tanker on Sunday morning. The boat capsized on the waters near Yeongheung Island, southwest of Incheon, after the collision that killed 13 out of the 22 on the fishing boat. [NEWS1]A fishing boat collided with an oil tanker in the waters off Incheon on Sunday morning, killing 13 people out of the 22 aboard the smaller vessel.
Two people, including the 70-year-old captain of the fishing boat, surnamed Oh, are still missing as of press time Sunday.
Authorities said the two vessels, a 9.77-ton fishing boat and a 336-ton oil tanker, collided on the waters south of Yeongheung Bridge which connects Yeongheung Island to Seonjae Island located in the waters southwest of Incheon around 6:09 a.m.
“The fishing boat left Jindu Port of Yeongheung Island at 6 a.m. and collided with the oil tanker around 6:09 a.m. on the waters some 1 mile south of the bridge,” said a marine police officer in Incheon during a press briefing on Sunday morning. “It capsized as a result.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
It looks like the newspaper delivery boy is on the verge of becoming obsolete:
A drone operated by Korea Post takes off from a port in Goheung, South Jeolla, to deliver mail and packages to the residents of Deungnyang Island, which is about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) off the coast. [KOREA POST]Jang In-kil, the lone mailman on Deungnyang Island off the coast of South Jeolla, travels to a port in Goheung, some 40 minutes away from the island, by boat at 8 a.m. every day to pick up mail and packages for the residents of the island. By the time Jang returns with the mail, it’s already 3 p.m., which means it takes over eight hours every day for him to collect the mail for his neighbors on the island.
That eight-hour trip may be shortened to just one hour, thanks to a new delivery service by government-operated drones.
Korea Post, the national postal service provider, on Tuesday started a trial run of its delivery drone on Jang’s daily route. The drone flew the 3.8-kilometer (2.4-mile) trip from the port in Goheung to a community center on the island in just 10 minutes, half an hour less than the time Jang had to spend on the sea every day. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if South Korea will have the same regulatory issues preventing drone delivery that Amazon is experiencing in the US?
