At least 37 people killed in fire at hospital for long-stay senior patients

By Lim Chang-won Posted : January 26, 2018, 11:04 Updated : January 26, 2018, 17:46

[Yonhap Photo]


SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Aju News) -- At least 37 people were killed and 131 others were injured on Friday in a deadly fire that raged through a provincial hospital specializing in long-stay senior patients, firefighters said. Many appeared to have died from suffocation.

The fire broke out at the first-floor emergency room of the six-story Sejong hospital in Milyang, some 280 kilometers (173 miles) southeast of Seoul, which housed about 200 patients and dozens of doctors, nurses and nurse aids.

The hospital, which treats senior citizens and ordinary patients together, has an adjacent sanatorium for domiciliary care. About 90 patients housed at the sanatorium were evacuated safely in a quick initial operation by rescuers.
 

[Yonhap Photo]


The blaze was completely put down in three hours after gutting the first and second floors of the hospital's main building. Firefighters rescued more than 110 patients and medical staff, but firefighters said 25 people were pronounced dead soon after they arrived in other hospitals.

There were conflicting reports on the number of fatalities, but firefighters gave revised figures later that  37 people died, 18 suffered serious injuries and 113 others were slightly injured. Hospital authorities said the dead included a doctor, a nurse and an aide.  

Choi Man-woo, the city's fire station chief, said the death toll could rise as some of the injured were in critical condition.
 

[Yonhap Photo]


"When an advance team arrived, the hospital was already packed with smoke and flame," Choi said, adding an initial operation focused on rescuing patients on the upper floors because the fire started in the first-floor emergency unit.  The exact cause of the fire was not known.

Choi said many patients in hospital wards were vulnerable to fire because they could not move around. "Many were under intensive care or too old to move around. They are vulnerable to fire and suffocation," he said, attributing a high death toll to the inhalation of toxic fumes.

Speaking of the painful moment, Lee Ok-soon, a 78-year-old female patient who was found unconscious on the second floor, told Yonhap News Agency that she could not get out without her walker, although the smoke filled in the hospital room. "I used a wet handkerchief and a winter quilt to hang in there. Afterwards, I lost my consciousness," she was quoted as saying.

On December 21 last year, 29 people died in a fire that gutted an eight-story sports and leisure building in Jecheon, about 115 kilometers (71 miles) southeast of Seoul. Firefighters said many victims were suffocated by toxic smoke from a lot of inflammable materials used for the building's interior and exterior.
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