Huge hospital blaze kills 41 in South Korea

[Jman888]

 

Huge hospital blaze kills 41 in South Korea

AFP  Jan 26, 2018

 

PHOTO: Reuters

 

 

A huge fire tore through a South Korean hospital Friday killing at least 41 people, the government said, in the country's worst blaze for 15 years.

 

More than 80 others were hurt in the fire, which comes just weeks before thousands of athletes and foreign visitors are expected in the country for the Winter Olympics.

 

 

Videos posted on social media showed a patient hanging on to a rope dangling from a helicopter above the hospital in Miryang, in the far south, and another crawling out of a window to climb down a ladder.

 

The six-storey structure housed a nursing home as well as the hospital.

 

The death toll rose rapidly throughout the morning, as those initially pulled from the blaze succumbed to their injuries.

 

By lunchtime, it had hit 41, according to the presidential Blue House.

 

"Two nurses said they had seen fire suddenly erupting in the emergency room," said fire chief Choi Man-Woo.

 

All the patients had been brought out, he said, adding that evacuating 15 sick people from the intensive care unit on the third floor took longer as firefighters had to wait for medical staff to supervise the process.

 

All those who died were in the hospital, he said.

 

S Korea's worst fire disaster in a decade as blaze sweeps hospital

 

 

"Many victims were from the first and second floors of the hospital... some died on their way to another hospital," he said.

 

Video footage and pictures showed the building engulfed by thick, dark smoke and surrounded by multiple fire trucks.

 

Survivors were brought out wrapped in blankets, and firefighters picked their way through the blackened shell of the building after the blaze was extinguished.

 

Around 200 people were in the Sejong Hospital when the fire erupted, police said.

 

 

Jang Yeong-Jae, a surviving patient, said he was on the second floor when nurses screamed "Fire!" in the hallway and urged people to leave through the emergency exits.

 

"But when I opened the exit door, the whole stairway was filled with dark smoke and I couldn't see a thing," he told Seoul's major daily JoongAng Ilbo.

 

"Everybody was running around in panic, falling over and screaming as smoke filled the rooms," he was quoted as saying. Jang tore open window screens and escaped on a ladder erected by firefighters.

 

"There were so many aged patients on other floors... I wonder if they escaped safely," JoongAng quoted Jang's wife as saying.

 

South Korean President Moon Jae-In called an emergency meeting with advisers, and demanded an immediate probe into the cause of the blaze.

 

The fire came only a month after 29 people were killed in an inferno at a fitness club in the South Korean city of Jecheon -- a disaster blamed on insufficient emergency exits, flammable finishing materials and illegally parked cars blocking access to emergency vehicles.

 

Friday's accident is South Korea's worst fire disaster since 2003, when an arson attack on a subway station in the southeastern city of Daegu killed 192 people.

 

 

 

[Lala81]

hospital should have a lot of oxygen pipes. If kana one of these, think fire will spread super fast.

[Jman888]

hospital should have a lot of oxygen pipes. If kana one of these, think fire will spread super fast.

 

 

reported fire started from ER, wonder there was any surgery going on     

[Piyopico]

One of the worst places to be when there is a fire. The people there aren’t mobile to begin with.

 

The others would be child care centers and rock concerts or those countdown events........

[Kb27]

hospital is the worst place to have a fire.

can't imagine getting all the sick people out of bed and start running.

[Carbon82]

The victim might not be killed by fire, but smoke too.

 

Newer hospital should have better fire protection system and design which can minimize the spread of fire, such as sprinkler system, fire shutter and proper compartmentation.

[Jamesc]

Hope nobody melted.

 

 

[Mustank]

Rip :(

Edited January 26, 2018 by Mustank

[DACH]

Sad case.

 

RIP

[kdash]

RIP... fire protection systems should be looked into for all older hospitals and beefed up if necessary...

[Carbon82]

As what I have guessed earlier, no sprinkler and poor smoke stop control contributed to the high fatalities... In this aspect, I applause SCDF for having stringent fire safety requirements for most building in Singapore.

 

 

Dozens dead in South Korea hospital blaze

 

MIRYANG: A huge fire tore through a South Korean hospital on Friday (Jan 26) killing at least 37 people, the government said, in the country's worst blaze for a decade.

 

Around 130 others were hurt in the fire, which comes just weeks before thousands of athletes and foreign visitors are expected in the country for the Winter Olympics.

 

While South Korea has risen to become the world's 11th-largest economy, some of its infrastructure was built rapidly and it has a history of preventable disasters.

 

It was the country's second major blaze in a month, and officials admitted there was no sprinkler system installed at the hospital.

 

The death toll rose rapidly throughout the morning as some of those initially pulled from the blaze succumbed to their injuries. At one point the presidential Blue House put it at 41, before authorities lowered it to 37, blaming double-counting.

 

Three of the dead were medical staff, officials said.

 

Jang Yeong-Jae, a surviving patient, said he was on the second floor when nurses screamed "Fire!" in the hallway and urged people to leave through the emergency exits.

 

"But when I opened the exit door, the whole stairway was filled with dark smoke and I couldn't see a thing," he told Seoul's major daily JoongAng Ilbo.

 

"Everybody was running around in panic, falling over and screaming as smoke filled the rooms," he was quoted as saying. Jang tore open window screens and escaped on a ladder erected by firefighters.

 

[UncleAtas]

Fire system need to upgrade.

 

FCC needs to be eagle eye.

 

Fire evacuation NEED to practice.

 

RIP to those perished..

[Camrysfa]

26Mar18:    Siberia mall fire kills 64. Fire exits blocked and fire alarms not working.....

 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43543105

 

 

Russian investigators and witnesses say there was no alarm and exits were blocked when a fire engulfed a shopping and entertainment mall in Siberia, killing at least 64 people.

 

Many of the victims in the coal-mining city of Kemerovo were children.

 

Russia's Investigative Committee spoke of blocked exits and "serious violations" at the Winter Cherry mall.

Sunday's blaze started on an upper floor. The mall's shops, cinema and bowling alley were packed at the time.

 

Video on social media showed people jumping from windows to escape.

• How party turned into nightmare

The Investigative Committee says a fire safety technician at the complex "switched off the alarm system" after being alerted about the fire.

 

The committee says two other fire safety officials have been detained for questioning, along with the Winter Cherry complex's technical director and the manager of a business located where the fire started.

 

Ten people are still listed as missing. Local teachers are trying to trace their pupils, who were on holiday. They do not know how many were in the complex.

 

In a Facebook post (in Russian), Kemerovo politician Anton Gorelkin said that "fire exits were shut, turning the complex into a trap" and "there was no organised evacuation".

 

He also said a fire extinguisher that could have doused the flames at the start did not work.

The region's deputy governor, Vladimir Chernov, said "this is the question: why were the doors shut?"

Russian media said most of the roof had collapsed. The fire engulfed a children's trampoline room and a cinema on the fourth floor.

 

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

 

Firefighters said the building was still smouldering a day later, with smoke billowing out and the remaining structures at risk of collapse.

 

 

[DACH]

RIP

[Francis-jack]

RIP

[Mustank]

Rip

:(

[Atrecord]

Many of the victims in the coal-mining city of Kemerovo were children.

 

 

Extreme sadness...