Families grieve victims after Ulsan power plant collapse

“I thought he might still be alive.”

In the morning of Nov. 12, at the funeral hall of Jungang Hospital in Nam-gu, Ulsan, the younger sister of Kim, 63, who died in the collapse of a boiler tower at the Ulsan Thermal Power Plant, wept uncontrollably. “The accident happened so suddenly that we did not even have time to prepare his portrait,” she said. Kim was one of three missing workers whose locations were confirmed in the morning of Nov. 7, the day after the accident. Recovery efforts were delayed due to the risk of further collapse, and firefighters were able to retrieve his body only after demolishing both sides of the boiler tower on Nov. 11.

“Kim’s wife is reportedly in poor health, weakened by extreme stress and exhaustion during the prolonged search. His eldest sister, 75, said tearfully, ‘He was the sixth of seven siblings, and I raised him after our mother died early. When I saw the news of the accident, I never imagined it was my brother.’”

A skilled welder, Kim was born in Busan and had worked on construction sites across Ulsan from his youth until recently to support his family. He was working about 25 meters above the ground on a ‘weakening operation’ to dismantle the boiler tower when the structure collapsed, burying him along with six other workers. "The firefighters identified my brother among those trapped and said, 'We’re sorry we couldn’t save him,' as they cried, and we cried too," his sister said. "I want to thank them deeply for continuing the search under such dangerous conditions."

Following Kim’s recovery the previous day, firefighters retrieved another body around 5:19 a.m. Tuesday from the wreckage of Boiler Tower Unit 5. The victim, a man in his 60s surnamed Lee, had been located around 10:14 p.m. the night before. Rescuers found him after an overnight search. The funeral hall at Ulsan Hospital in Nam-gu, where Lee’s body was temporarily placed, remained somber throughout the day.

As of Tuesday, a week after the accident, the official death toll had risen to five of the seven workers trapped in the collapse, with two still missing. Fire authorities are devoting all available resources to the rescue effort. About 110 personnel, including 70 rescue workers and 40 civilian demolition experts, have been deployed. The location of one remaining worker has been confirmed, while the other has not yet been found. Search dogs and detection equipment are being used to locate the missing.

“The work is difficult because of the risk of secondary collapse and the large amount of debris, but we will do everything possible to bring the missing workers back to their families as soon as we can,” a fire department official said.


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