ZCZC
BFF-03
SKOREA-FIRE
Seven killed in Seoul studio complex fire
SEOUL, Nov 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Seven tenants were killed and 11 others
injured early Friday when a blaze ripped through a three-storey studio
complex in Seoul, fire authorities said.
While South Korea is technologically advanced and has risen to become the
world’s 11th-largest economy, many people who have missed out on its progress
struggle to get by.
Low-income tenants often live in buildings with tiny single-bed studios
once favoured by applicants preparing for various state examinations and
known as goshiwon, or exam centres.
The dead and injured were mostly casual labourers or street vendors in
their 40s to 60s, living in the dilapidated building, which had no
sprinklers, Yonhap news agency said.
“I heard screams and went out. Then I saw the building enveloped by a lot
of smoke and flames,” a 61-year-old businessman living across the street told
Yonhap.
With labyrinthine structures with narrow corridors, goshiwon buildings are
notoriously vulnerable to blazes, with more than 250 breaking out over the
past five years.
BSS/AFP/MRI/0837 hrs