Three die as aged care facility evacuation ends in disaster

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Three die as aged care facility evacuation ends in disaster

Published: 26 Mar. 2025, 19:01 Updated: 26 Mar. 2025, 19:29

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

An annex building of a nursing facility for the elderly in Yeongdeok County, North Gyeongsang, is seen after it was burned out by wildfires on March 26. Three of the 21 residents died while evacuating. [LEE EUN-JI]

Three elderly residents died when a vehicle carrying them became engulfed in flames during an evacuation of a nursing home which housed 21 residents, all in their 70s and 80s, in Yeongdeok-eup, Yeongdeok County.

Eighteen aged residents, however, were safely transferred to a church in Yeongdeok County, North Gyeongsang, as wildfires continued to sweep through the southeastern regions of the country on Wednesday.

According to a local care worker, evacuations began around 8:20 p.m. on Tuesday and they arrived at the church after over five hours later, at around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

“It took more than five hours to travel just 10 kilometers [6 miles] because we kept moving toward the sea but became trapped,” the worker added.

On Wednesday, the church was filled with grief following news of the tragic loss of the three residents.

“The fire reached the back of the nursing home just as I told the residents to evacuate,” the care worker recalled. “Since many of them had difficulty moving, we had to urgently transfer them to staff vehicles using wheelchairs.”

The residents were evacuated in groups, using staff vehicles. The last vehicle to depart was the one that caught fire, which carried two staff members and four elderly residents.

As the vehicle entered National Route 7, embers began flying and within 10 minutes, the car was in flames.

The fire intensified and the staff members began helping the residents out of the vehicle. One elderly resident managed to escape, but just as the second was about to exit, the vehicle's tires burst and the car went up in flames.

As they were unable to rescue the remaining two residents, the staff members fled with the lone elderly resident. They asked for help on the road and managed to escape toward the sea in a passing car

They then moved to another car, finally reaching the shelter at around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

According to the care worker, there was no ambulance or other government-provided transportation available for evacuating the nursing home.

“If we had received help from the authorities earlier, the last car wouldn't have been caught in the fire,” the worker said.

A nursing home for the elderly in Yeongdeok County, North Gyeongsang, where three of its 21 residents died while evacuating due to wildfires on March 25 [LEE EUN-JI]

The director of the nursing home also mourned the tragedy, stressing that a quicker government response could have prevented it.

“It took only about 15 minutes for the fire, which initially seemed far away, to reach the nursing home,” the director said.

According to Yeongdeok County, officials sent an evacuation notice to five nursing homes in the county at around 6:03 p.m. on Tuesday.

“After sending the notice, I visited the nursing home at around 8:20 p.m. to check if they had evacuated, as the wildfires had disrupted mobile phone service,” a county official said.

“After instructing them to evacuate, we immediately moved on to another facility. It's heartbreaking that such a fatal accident occurred.”

The official added there are only two ambulances in the county, at Yeongdeok Public Health Center and Yeongdeok Asan Hospital.

“We dispatched a private ambulance from Pohang, but it couldn't reach the nursing home due to roads being blocked.”

BY LEE EUN-JI,WE SUNG-WOOK [[email protected]]