Disaster at Chonan Elementary School Kills 8

A large fire broke out at a soccer training camp at an elementary school in Chonan City, Choongnam, at night on March 26. Eight elementary student soccer players died and 16 were injured. One of the main causes of the incident was that safety procedures were not followed, so therefore added the shame of the Daegu subway disaster.

A fire broke out at the soccer team training camp of the Chonan Elementary School in Sunghwang-Dong, Chonan, Choongnam at around 11:10 at night on March 26, and 8 were killed including the sleeping soccer player Joo, Sang-hyuk (12). Song, Woo-min (12), and Coach Mr. Huh (35) were injured. The 6 other seriously injured were moved to the Kurosungsim Hospital in Seoul and are being treated. The fire caused damage to the camp building and furnishings, made 16 million won worth of property loss, and was extinguished in 15 minutes. The police, judging from the fact that the area around the refrigerator was burned, assume that the fire was caused by an electrical short-circuit and an investigation is currently being conducted.

The dead students are Im, Tae-gyoon (8), Gang, Min-soo (10), Kim, Min-sik (11), Lee, Jang-won (12), Lee, Gun-woo (12), Kim, Paul (12), and Goh, Won-joo (11) as well as Joo.

As a result of the police investigation, it was found that the camp did not have any fire safety measures in place. This camp, built on alumni donations in October, 1993, consists of a one-story concrete brick building and office container.

Windows did not do their function because containers, refrigerators, shoe storage areas, and so on blocked them. The police assume that toxic gas formed by the fire was not ventilated sufficiently, so most of the students were suffocated to death while they were sleeping.

It was also found that the camp never received fire safety inspections. An officer of the Chonan Fire Station said, “The camp was not included in the objects of inspection (building larger than 400m2), so we did not conduct inspections.”

At the time of the fire, the head coach and coach were outside the camp, so there were no adults to take care of the students.

President Noh, Moo-hyun expressed his regret during his Chief Advisors` meeting: “As an adult, I have nothing to say about the fact that these children were injured. The cause for the Daegu Subway disaster was a defect in the system and facility, so thoroughly check whether there was any systematic problem or not and make the correction plan as soon as possible.”

mhjee@donga.com