Hospital fire kills 21

Update -- May 28

A fire believed set by an 81-year-old dementia patient blazed through a hospital ward for the elderly Wednesday and killed 21 people in southern South Korea, mostly from smoke inhalation, police and fire officials said.

The fire on the second floor of the Hyosarang Hospital in Jangseong county also injured seven people and raised concerns about lax fire regulations at a time when the nation is undergoing soul-searching about public safety following the ferry sinking last month that left more than 300 people dead or missing.

Media reports noted that hospitals for the elderly such as Hyosarang, which specializes in dementia and palsy patients, are not required to have sprinklers in South Korea despite a rapidly aging population.

"These are the incidents that wretchedly show the dangerous foundation on which our country is established," the Seoul-based Hankyoreh newspaper said in an editorial on its website.

Security video showed the suspect entering the room where the blaze began, and the remains of a lighter were found in that room, police station chief Noh Kyu-ho told a televised briefing. Noh said the man, identified only by his surname Kim, denied responsibility.

The video footage showed the fire starting to spread from that room about two minutes after Kim left, another police officer said, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of department rules. Hairs on Kim's arms and hands were singed and he had moved back to his own room afterward and then quickly exited the hospital later, the police officer said.

There were 34 patients and one nurse on the hospital's second floor at the time of the blaze, and Jangseong Fire Department officials said 20 of the patients and the nurse were killed, mostly from suffocation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of office rules.

More than 270 firefighters put the fire out after about six minutes, officials said.

Officials said that 45 people, including a nurse, were on the hospital's first floor but that they all escaped.

Kim Jeong-bae, one of the firefighters who entered the building, said none of the bodies that he and his colleagues retrieved were burned and that they apparently were already dead when firefighters entered the hospital while it was engulfed in black smoke.

South Korean media including Yonhap news agency earlier had reported some of the dead had their hands bound to their beds, without citing any source for the information. Fire officials later Wednesday said that report was inaccurate.

Kim, the firefighter, said all the dead bodies he saw were found on beds or on the floor but none of them had their hands bound. He said the second-floor windows are barred. Two hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media, also said that patients were not bound to beds.

A fire earlier this week at a bus terminal near Seoul killed eight people and injured 57.

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Original story -- May 27

South Korean officials say 20 patients and a nurse have died in a fire at a hospital in the southwestern city of Jangseong.

An officer with the Jangseong Fire Department says that most of the victims were elderly patients. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because of office rules.

The officer says the victims died after suffocating on poisonous gas.

The officer says there were 33 patients and a nurse on duty when the fire broke out on the second floor of an annex of Hyosarang Hospital early Wednesday morning. Seven people were injured

The fire was put out after about seven minutes. The cause was not immediately known.

The fire comes as South Korean officials are still searching for missing passengers from a ferry sinking last month that killed or left missing more than 300 people. South Korea has also had two subway accidents in recent weeks.