SEOUL, June 9 (BNA) A fire caused by an arson spread to an office building Thursday in the South Korean city of Daegu, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens, local fire officials and police said.
Dozens of firefighters and vehicles were deployed and the blaze was quickly put out, which began late in the morning on the second floor of a seven-story office building near the city’s district court, the Associated Press reported.
Seven people have been confirmed dead, including an unidentified man suspected by the police of setting fire to a lawyer’s office. Park Seok-jin, head of the Suseong District Fire Department in Daegu, said at least 41 people were injured, most of them from smoke inhalation, and 26 of them are receiving treatment at nearby hospitals.
Park said no other people were trapped in the building. The relatively high death toll in a short period of time is likely due to the building having no sprinklers on his office floors, according to Park, who did not respond directly when asked if there were any loopholes in legally required safety standards.
Jeong Hyun Wook, a Daegu city police official, said that security camera footage shows the suspect leaving his home apparently carrying a container in both hands that may have been used to start the fire.
Jeong said all the dead were found in the same room and that police were investigating possible motives. A team from the National Forensic Services has also been deployed to the site.
With the death of the suspect, Jeong said, it is unclear whether anyone will be prosecuted for the fire unless police find an accomplice.
South Korean media published photos it said were received from witnesses showing smoke billowing from the building in Beomyo-dong, an affluent business district in Daegu, South Korea’s fourth largest city and home to more than 2.6 million people.
Other photos showed broken windows that Park said were caused by the rescue effort.
The ministry said Lee Sang-min, South Korea’s interior and safety minister, instructed officials to ensure a thorough investigation of the fire and prompt assistance to the injured and the families of the victims.
Daegu was the site of one of the worst arson attacks in South Korean history in 2003 when 192 people were killed after a 56-year-old man set a subway train on fire.