At least 39 people have been killed and more than 70 injured in a fire at a hospital in South Korea.<\/p>\n
The blaze is thought to have started in the emergency room at Sejong Hospital in the south-eastern city of Miryang.<\/p>\n
About 200 patients were inside the building and an adjoining nursing home at the time.<\/p>\n
It is South Korea’s deadliest fire in almost a decade and the toll is expected to rise with several of the injured in critical condition.<\/p>\n
Firefighters told the Yonhap news agency that the victims appeared to have died from smoke inhalation. Hospital medical staff, including a doctor and a nurse, are among the victims.<\/p>\n
Authorities have given varying death tolls, with fire officials confirming 39 victims to the BBC, but police announcing 41 dead.<\/p>\n
Fire chief Choi Man-woo told reporters the cause of the fire was not yet known.<\/p>\n
“The victims came both from the hospital and the nursing home. Some died on their way to another hospital,” news agency AFP quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n
The hospital building did not have any fire sprinklers installed, local media said.<\/p>\n
Under current laws, the building was not required to have fire sprinklers, but was in the process of fitting sprinklers in its adjoining nursing home.<\/p>\n
A new law that is due to be rolled out by 30 June would have made sprinklers compulsory for nursing homes.<\/p>\n
Mr Choi said the fire started around 07:30 local time (22:30 GMT on Thursday) and was put out in about three hours.<\/p>\n
According to Yonhap, 94 patients from the nursing home were safely evacuated from the building.<\/p>\n
Pictures from the scene show the building engulfed by heavy grey smoke as well as patients being rescued.<\/p>\n
South Korean President Moon Jae-in arranged an emergency meeting to discuss ways of dealing with the fire.<\/p>\n
According to Yonhap news agency, senior officials from both the governing and the opposition parties travelled to Miryang to offer their condolences and call for a thorough investigation into what caused the tragedy.<\/p>\n
“We hope that all-out efforts are made to prevent additional victims,” Kim Hyun, the spokeswoman of the ruling Democratic Party, said according to Yonhap.<\/p>\n
Miryang is about 270km (168 miles) south-east of the capital, Seoul.<\/p>\n
The hospital has been operating since 2008. The nursing home and hospital between them have about 200 beds.<\/p>\n
About 35 medical staff work at the hospital, according to provincial officials.<\/p>\n
The fire comes just a month after 29 people in the South Korean city of Jecheon were killed in a blaze at a public gym.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least 39 people have been killed and more than 70 injured in a fire at a hospital in South Korea. The blaze is thought to have started in the emergency room at Sejong Hospital in the south-eastern city of Miryang. About 200 patients were inside the building and an adjoining nursing home at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":395356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[16518,4844],"yoast_head":"\n