A massive fire broke out in a hospital in Miryang, South Korea, killing 37 and injuring over 130 people at last count.
MIRYANG, South Korea, Jan. 26 (Yonhap) -- A fire gutted the ground floor of a hospital in southeastern South Korea and sent toxic fumes raging through the six-story building, killing at least 37 people and injuring 131 others in one of the country's deadliest blazes in a decade.
Nearly 180 people were inside Sejong Hospital in Miryang, some 280 kilometers southeast of Seoul, when the fire broke out around 7:30 a.m. Witnesses said they first saw smoke coming from the hospital's emergency room or a dressing room for nurses next to it.
The death toll was reported to have climbed to 41, but officials later corrected it, saying some victims were counted twice. Still, the toll could rise further as 18 of the injured are in serious condition, officials said.
The fire completely burned the hospital's first floor, but didn't reach the higher levels. But smoke was seen billowing from windows on higher floors, and most of the fatal victims were believed to have died from inhaling toxic gas. The dead included one doctor and two nurses.
Credit to ROK Drop for linking to this article.
2 comments:
I saw this on the news yesterday morning. No doubt there will be an outcry over the lack of safety regulations and the failure to implement existing regulations (one problem that was pointed out is that this hospital was not big enough to be required by law to have a sprinkler system, which seems kind of insane).
And then things will go quiet again, until the next tragedy.
re: sprinklers
That is insane. Jesus.
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