Nurse dies trying to save patients in Icheon blaze

Social Affairs

Published: 07 Aug. 2022, 16:34

Nurse dies trying to save patients in Icheon blaze

The daughter of Hyeon Eun-kyeong, a 50-year-old nurse who died last Friday in a hospital trying to save patients from a blaze, holds her mother’s portrait at the Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Icheon Hospital on Sunday. [YONHAP]

A fire broke out in a building in Icheon, Gyeonggi last Friday, killing five and injuring 42 others.

All five deaths were connected to a dialysis hospital on the top floor of the four-story building. Four patients and one nurse were unable to escape, police said.

Police and firefighters said the cause of the blaze has yet to be determined, but the possibility of arson was “near zero,” said Yeo Un-cheol, head of the forensic unit at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency.

According to Gyeonggi police, the fire appeared to have begun at an indoor golf driving range on the third floor of the building.

The driving range was out of business and construction workers went inside last Friday morning to take down the walls and remove the floors. They detected a blaze at around 10:17 a.m.

Workers told police they tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the fire on their own. They called firefighters for help, and the blaze was put out nearly 80 minutes later at 11:30 a.m.

Thick smoke from the third floor quickly spread to the dialysis hospital on the upper floor, trapping four patients and a 50-year-old nurse, Hyeon Eun-kyeong.

Jang Jae-gu, head of the Icheon Fire Station, said it appeared Hyeon had enough time to evacuate, but died trying to get her patients out.

Three construction workers who initially discovered the fire and called firefighters were summoned as witnesses on Sunday for questioning.

Officers later told reporters the three workers said they didn’t use any welding machines or torches that day during work.

The three workers claimed they first saw “a spark and smoke cascading” from the ceiling of a room inside the indoor golf driving range. The room in question wasn’t among the areas they worked on that day, they testified.

Police said they were looking through CCTV footage retrieved from the building and summoning more witnesses for questioning. No one has been arrested.

Even though the workers may not have directly caused the blaze, police said they were trying to figure out whether any of their actions might have inadvertently caused it.

President Yoon Suk-yeol expressed his condolences over the weekend and praised nurse Hyeon’s sacrifice, saying the government must never forget her devotion to her patients.

Kim Dae-ki, Yoon’s chief of staff, and Ahn Sang-hoon, Yoon’s senior secretary for social affairs, both visited the Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Icheon Hospital on Saturday, where the mourning altars for the five dead people were set up, to pay their respects.

BY JEON ICK-JIN, LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]