By Kwon Mee-yoo
A pre-dawn fire at a private nursing home in the port city of Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, killed 10 senior citizens and injured 17, Friday.
The fire broke out in the two-story Indeok Nursing Home at 4:24 a.m. Friday. About 20 fire engines rushed to the scene. The fire started in a 16-square-meter wide office on the first floor and was extinguished after 30 minutes.
A worker at the facility, identified only as Choi, 63, who first discovered the fire, said she saw a light as she awoke from sleeping and saw flames shooting out of the office.
The nursing home has offices and wards on the first floor and more wards on the second floor. The facility is for elderly women only.
Most of the dead, aged from 70 to 90, suffocated as their illnesses made it difficult to evacuate them quickly, firefighters said. All of the deaths occurred on the first floor. Those injured were aged between 50 and 91 and they were taken to four nearby hospitals.
Police are investigating what caused the fire.
“Most of the victims were senior citizens who could not move freely without assistance and the number of casualties is relatively large given the size of fire,” a police officer said.
President Lee Myung-bak expressed regret over the tragedy through his spokeswoman Kim Hee-jung.
“President Lee said the deaths of the elderly people in this unfortunate incident are regrettable,” she said. He received a report of the fire early in the morning before heading to the G20 summit venue.
Lee instructed Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik to look into the incident.