Poor Fire Safety Leads to Deaths of Four College Students in Damyang

Who creates a building to barbeque in with a straw roof, one exit, and no fire extinguisher?  Well a guy in Damyang did with deadly results:

Four university students were killed and six others sustained injuries in a fire at a guest house in Damyang, South Jeolla Province, Saturday.

The fire erupted in a hut in the guest house compound, where some guests were having a barbeque.

A survivor said the fire began after one of the guests attempted to extinguish a charcoal fire by pouring water onto it, which caused sparks to reach the flammable ceiling.

Police said the hut was built with flammable materials ― dried grass for the roof, a wooden floor and plastic walls.

Twenty-six guests were inside the hut grilling meat at the time of the incident. All were students from Dongshin University in Naju, South Jeolla Province.

Another survivor said there wasn’t a fire extinguisher in the hut, which is used by guests for barbeques.

“I had to bring one from elsewhere, but even that stopped working after 30 seconds,” he was quoted as saying by a police officer.

Police suspect poor safety inspections are to blame for the fire which started at 9:45 p.m. and lasted 50 minutes.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but this is just another example of poor safety awareness in Korea. Hopefully the increased media attention on this subject in Korea will improve safety awareness to reduce incidents like this from happening.