7 People Dead, 12 Injured in Fire at Hotel in Bucheon

AKP STAFF

A fire broke out at a hotel in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, resulting in the deaths of seven people and injuries to twelve others.

According to fire authorities and police, the fire started at around 7:39 PM on August 22 in a guest room on the 8th floor of a 9-story hotel in Jung-dong, Wonmi District, Bucheon. The victims, who were between their 20s and 50s, included four men and three women.

Initially, there were reports that a foreigner was among the deceased, but Bucheon City later confirmed that all the victims were Korean.

Twelve people were injured, three of them seriously. They were taken to the hospital by emergency responders, and their injuries are not life-threatening. Most of the casualties were guests staying on the 8th and 9th floors, near room 810, where the fire is believed to have started.

Two hotel guests jumped from the 8th floor onto a fire rescue air mattress on the ground outside but unfortunately died.

Another woman was found in cardiac arrest on the 8th-floor staircase. She was taken to the hospital but did not survive.

At a briefing, Lee Sang-don, head of the Bucheon Fire Prevention Department, explained that most of the victims were found inside rooms on the 8th and 9th floors, as well as in stairwells and hallways.

He also mentioned that the two people who jumped onto the air mattress were confirmed dead. Initially, the air mattress was properly deployed, but it seems to have flipped over after they jumped.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

It was discovered that before the fire, a guest had entered room 810, smelled something burning, and asked the hotel to change rooms. The room was unoccupied when the fire broke out. Although the fire didn't spread throughout the entire hotel, the building quickly filled with thick black smoke, leading to significant casualties due to toxic fumes.

Lee added that when the first responders arrived, the hotel was already filled with smoke, which was also seen billowing out of the windows.

The hotel, built in 2003, did not have sprinklers installed in the rooms. Sprinklers have been mandatory in newly built buildings over six floors since a law change in 2017, but older buildings, except some medical facilities, are not required to install them retroactively. This makes older buildings particularly vulnerable to fires.

The hotel had 64 rooms, and 27 guests were staying there on the day of the fire.

The fire department issued a Level 1 emergency response three minutes after receiving the fire report, and escalated to Level 2 eighteen minutes later, deploying additional firefighters and equipment from nearby stations. In total, about 70 vehicles, including fire trucks, and 160 firefighters were mobilized to the scene. Around 90 police officers and 60 Bucheon City officials helped with the rescue efforts and controlled the area.

The fire was completely extinguished by 10:26 PM, nearly three hours after it started, and the emergency response was lifted nine minutes later.

Kim In-jae, the head of Bucheon City’s health department, stated that the injured were taken to six different hospitals, including Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital. He also mentioned that they may be transferred to other hospitals after discussing with their families.