20141116 Korea Fire at guest house kills 4
Korea Nov 16 2014 “Houses”
Dead : dead 1 to 4 Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Fire at guest house kills 4
Updated: 2014-11-16-17:20
By Kim Se-jeong
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.
By law, all facilities with cooking equipment are required to have a fire extinguisher.
Police said the owner of the guest house should have got a license for the hut for cooking, but failed to do so. The owner, surnamed Choi, is a councilor in Damyang.
The guest house is too small to be subject to safety inspections from the authorities.
The one-story building is 58 square meters in size, not big enough for mandatory annual safety inspection by county authorities. It is only required for facilities bigger than 1,000 square meters in size.
A document said the guest house underwent only two hygiene inspections last year.
There was only one exit from the hut, and all the dead were found near it.
The guest house opened in May 2005. It consists of a two-story main building where guests sleep and a separate structure for barbeques.
Websource:Korea times
http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2014/11/113_168237.html