Calls to fire department were some victims' last

Fire trucks are dispatched to a crowd crush scene in Itaewon in central Seoul on Oct. 29, which killed at least 156 people. [YONHAP]

“Help, I’m in Itaewon, help.”

“I’m dying, please come over here quick.”

Or wordless screaming.

Phone records of 119 emergency calls made from the Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon were released Monday, giving voice to the victims — some at the moments of their deaths.

Transcripts from the National Fire Agency obtained by Rep. Yong Hye-in of the Basic Income Party showed 87 emergency calls made between 10:15 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29 to 12:56 a.m. Sunday. Of them, 19 calls directly referred to being “crushed to death.”

Phone records of police emergency calls had been released before. This was the first time transcripts of calls made to the fire department were revealed.

“You have to send everyone here, the police and the fire department,” said an initial caller at 10:15 p.m. “People look crushed to death. There are so many injured people on the streets.”

A second call was made at 10:18 p.m.

“Here. I'm dying,” the caller said. "Please come over quickly."

That caller, who claimed to be in an alley next to the Hamilton Hotel, said, “There are so many people that I think I'm going to be crushed to death,” adding, “There are people who are under others. There are lots of them.”

A third caller at 10:20 p.m. described the scene more specifically, saying, “I cannot see all of them but there are about ten people under others.”

Six transcripts of calls from 10:21 to midnight had screams, moans, and wails recorded. Some calls had only screams with people in the background shouting, "Don't push!"

A call received at 10:38 p.m. indicated the situation getting worse. “Please come quickly. People are fainting,” the caller said, adding, “If people fall here, a lot of people are going to die.”

A rescue team arrived at 10:29 p.m. and performed CPR on about 15 people who lost consciousness from 10:42 p.m, according to Yonhap.

In the meantime, emergency calls continued. Requests asking for more rescue workers and ambulances were made.

“More than 50 people collapsed and are having difficulty breathing,” said a caller at 11:31 p.m. “A fire truck is here but it cannot enter.”

The National Fire Agency received 53 reports from 10:15 p.m., when the first emergency call was made, to 10:43 p.m., when a first-stage emergency response order was issued. A total of 65 reports were received until the second-stage order at 11:13 p.m., and 82 reports until the third-stage order at 11:48 p.m.

After the third-stage emergency response order was issued, reports of missing persons started coming in.

There were also calls made by police officers.

One caller, who claimed to be calling from the situation room at Yongsan Police Station in Seoul, said in a call at 11:06 p.m. that "three or four more ambulances are needed." It was 51 minutes after the disaster.

“If you compare the 119 emergency phone calls made on the day of the disaster with the fire department’s response log, there were 82 reports received related to the Itaewon crowd crush while the Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters issued a third-stage emergency response and demanded dispatch of the police seven times,” said Rep. Yong.

“The government should take responsibility for the delay in initial response due to the poor operation of the disaster management system despite people’s desperate calls to save their lives.”

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]