29 people have died and 26 more were injured in a fire on Thursday at Jecheon in what is being described as South Korea’s biggest fire since 2003’s arson attack on a subway in Daegu in the southeast.
The fire started in the parking lot of an 8-storey building at 4:00pm local time (0700 GMT). 20 people were caught in the sauna of a fitness centre which is housed in the building.
The National Fire Agency had this to say: “The fire produced so much toxic smoke so quickly, leaving many people unable to evacuate, Many victims appeared to been unaware of the fire raging outside the bathhouse until it became impossible to flee, The death toll may rise further as firefighters continue to search the building.”
The incident has forced the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics organiser’s to put on hold a planned relay torch event scheduled to have happened in the city on Friday. Yonhap news agency said, citing the organisers. “We decided to cancel the event to mourn the victims.”
A correspondent at the organising committee quoted that “The fire is South Korea’s worst since 2008 when a blaze at a warehouse in the city of Icheon killed 40 workers.”
President Moon Jae-In in his official statement urged officials to make “utmost efforts” for rescue and search operations, and expressed his deepest condolences and regret over the whole incident, his office reported that this was “The worst fire ever to hit modern South Korea was an arson attack on a subway station in the southeastern city of Daegu that left 192 people dead and nearly 150 injured in 2003.”