31 dead in South Korea hospital blaze: Firefighters

January 26, 2018 | 16:00

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SEOUL: At least 31 people were killed in a blaze at a hospital in South Korea on Friday (Jan 26), authorities said, with more than 70 injured and eight of those injured listed as being in critical condition.

Firefighters try to put out a fire at a hospital building engulfed by heavy grey smoke in Miryang on Jan 26, 2018. (Photo: AFP/Yonhap)

Video footage and pictures showed a helicopter flying above the building in Miryang, engulfed by heavy grey smoke and surrounded by multiple fire trucks.

The fire started at around 7.30am (6.30am Singapore time) at the rear of the emergency room on the first floor of Sejong Hospital and it was mostly extinguished after a few hours, Choi Man-woo, the head of Miryang city's fire station, told a televised media briefing.

Miryang is about 270km southeast of the capital, Seoul.

All the patients had been evacuated from the hospital and a nursing home in the same building, Choi added.

"The victims came both from the hospital and the nursing home. Some died on their way to another hospital."

Most of those who died were on the first and second floors of the hospital, he said.

Choi added that there were no deaths from burns and that officials were investigating the reason for the blaze.

Around 200 people were in the Sejong Hospital building when the fire broke out, police said.

The presidential Blue House in Seoul said in a mobile message that President Moon Jae-in had called an emergency meeting of his aides to address measures regarding the fire.

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.

AFP

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