Daegu Subway Disaster
I have received a couple of emails from people who are planning to come to Korea (or their children are planning to come teach here) and they are worried about Daegu and safety. Since this site draws a lot of traffic for people who do internet searches for "Daegu" I thought I'd post some information here.
In late February a former mental patient in his fifties who had threatened suicide and mentioned self-immoliation boarded a six car train in Daegu's Subway Line One, at Sungdangmot headed towards downtown. He wanted to kill himself and take as many people with him as possible. He has stated this in police interviews at the hospital where he is currently a patient. He was carrying a milk carton filled with kerosene. When the train was nearing Joongangno Station (downtown where most people are getting off or on) he started trying to light his lighter. Other passengers tried to stop him, and the milk carton fell to the floor and was ignited. People batted out the flames on the mental patient and in the car, but when the doors opened a few seconds later, instead of staying to try to fight an increasing blaze people ran out, including some men who dragged out the arsonist and handed him to the police.
The biggest problem at this point was that the upholstery on the seats, the advertisements on the walls and even the tiles on the floors of the train turned out to be flammable, and even though there was little actual flame, large clouds of noxious smoke filled with poisonous chemicals was produced.
The next problem was that the control office responded poorly to the emergency, and they instructed the train from the opposite direction which was approaching to go slow, but to proceed to the station. The wind of the trains passage sucked the fire straight in, and the second train shortly was in the same state as the first. Unfortunately the driver of the second train two times came on the PA and told the passengers to sit and wait, that they'd get moving again soon. So, other than the passengers who were planning on exiting at the stop, most stayed on the train. Then he came on one more time, having realized the situation and told them all to get out, but within moments after this announcement the lights were gone (the electrical system was also fire sensitive and there were no emergency lights at all). He says he thought everyone had exited, but in fact they couldn't, because he removed the key and left, which locked the doors (on four of the six cars). People were trapped in the dark in a burning metal box. They made panicked calls on cell phones to fathers, husbands, friends, mothers. They still replay these recordings on TV and it almost kills you just to listen to them. People who stumbled out didn't all make it up the stairs, with no light to find them, some fell off the platform, others succumbed to the smoke and died of asphyxiation.
At that stop there are four very tall floors between the platform and the street. One would not have light until reaching the floor below the street where an independent light source from a shopping center and some light at the stairwells would be visible. Visiting the site, I saw that the smoke blackened the tiled walls with soot all the way to the street, and that entire time people would have been exposed to terrible fumes. Images from TV showed huge clouds of smoke billowing out. Now they've even closed off the street to through traffic out of fear that the fire structurally damaged the station. Buses have been diverted, and of course the subway isn't running again, yet.
The death toll has not been fixed yet they have figures of how many people used tickets or swiped cards to enter and how many had gone out, but by the time the situation was very bad, most people were leaping or climbing under the turnstiles. Some of the videotapes of station platforms had been recorded over already when the police requested them (I am not sure if the police requested them too late or if the rumours about the subway administration intentionally concealing evidence are true). So it is not sure how many people are dead but not yet identified (DNA samples have been taken from family members, but the bodies are incredibly badly burnt, to the point where you'd have to be in forensics to say it was a body). The confirmed death toll is at about 198 right now. Many are still in hospitals, as well, though I believe the patients who are still alive are all expected to make it.
The city government, the makers of the cars, the subway administration and the drivers of both trains are all being charged in court. I would say it's pretty unfair to charge the first driver, though, as he's one of the most seriously injured and how could he know that a madman had boarded his train? He didn't run off like the second driver!
There have been funeral services, memorials and vigils (some of which are still going on). There have also been a lot of demonstrations in the best Korean tradition. TBC, the Daegu TV station is still broadcasting hours and hours of daily coverage of the situation. Posters downtown show the Daegu City Mayor as Arnold Schwarznaegger in Terminator 1 saying "I'll be back" and calling it "Daegu Hell Train" Instead of Subway Train. In Korean 'hell' is Ji-oke and 'sub' (or basement) is Ji-ha. Subway is Jihachul, so they have made it Jiokechul instead. Downtown the subway has become a sort of shrine, with candles and thousands of white flowers (mostly mums). One day, the first Sunday that people were allowed on site after the tragedy I saw a line of over 1,000 people waiting to be able to walk through the site, lay their flowers, scratch messages in the soot on the walls, stare dumb-founded at the photo-posters made by the families "My mother got on the subway at XXX stop, she was going to XXX stop, on her way to do XXX. Now I'll never be able to see her again. Mother, I love you, I love you, why did you have to go?" The ones that screwed my emotions into knots the worst were probably the one that said "Mom, I'm your youngest daughter. I had the meal all waiting and you didn't arrive. Why are you late? When are you going to get here? The food is getting cold." and the one that said "Mother I was fighting with you before you died, I just wish I could look into your eyes and say that I was being wrong and stubborn. How can you ever forgive me now? Oh mother, please hear me, I am so sorry."
It is a terrible and incredibly tragic accident caused ultimately by human error. Koreans across the country are waking up to the other less than safe things about the country, and I believe that in time the push for safety as a result of this tragedy will save many lives. In the meantime, what to do when the subway starts running again? It is the fastest and easiest way to go, but even if they fix every safety problem and educate all the employees on crisis response and prevention... will anyone be able to face walking down those steps and watching the doors close?
Both ends of the subway are running again, but on Sunday a group of relatives of victims staged a demo that closed down one of them for about an hour. Have they replaced the upholstery, though? That's what I'd like to know! Can't any other crazy still do the same exact thing until they do? Regardless, I urge you to go to the downtown subway stop and take a walk through the first floor below the street, which is open, and see the memorials, and if you can buy a cup of coffee for the families of still missing victims camped out down there. Sign the safety petition, and if you want to donate, use the method below or just walk over to Citizen's Hall and donate the office set up to handle those things. Just go straight back through the parking lot, it's on the ground floor to your left as you enter, and all encased in glass.
If you want to donate to help and haven't done so yet, then you can deposit money to Daegu Bank, recipient Daegu Met. City, Acct. number 036-05-005208-7 then please send an email to ewmaster@daegumail.net with your country, name and the amount of money so you can be properly recorded on the donor lists. For more info you can call 429-2155.
