Eyewitness accounts of the fire that
engulfed a South Korean hospital and nursing home early Friday—which
killed at least 37 people and injured more than 100 others—revealed the
chaos of rescue efforts as firefighters fought against the spreading
smoke and flames.
The fire started on the first floor of Sejong Hospital’s emergency room
and by the time firefighters arrived the whole first floor had been
engulfed, forcing them to rescue the trapped patients through the
second-story windows, said Choi Man-wu, a fire official in the city of
Miryang.
Videos posted on social media showed patients going through extreme
lengths to escape the blaze, with one patient gripping a rope that
dangled from a helicopter, and another crawling out of a window and down
a ladder, the Bangkok Post reported. |
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