[Kkokomu steamed review] '192 people killed' Daegu subway fire disaster... Why didn't the passengers escape?

The story of 'that day' in history that we should not forget, 'Jang Trio' Jang Hyeon-seong, Jang Seong-gyu, and Jang Do-yeon tell the story of SBS 'The Tale of Biting the Tail' (hereinafter 'Kkokomu').

For those who missed the main broadcast, or for those who have seen the broadcast but want to review the content again, SBS Entertainment News puts it all together in one room.

The story of 'that day' that I want to tell 'you' this time is the episode of 'The Untold

, which aired on the 5th .

Actor Jung In-sun, singer Seung-yoon Lee, and Winner Kang Seung-yoon appeared as friends for the story. (The review is conducted in a semi-verbal mode according to the characteristics of 'Kokkomu'.)

when the flames soared.

19 years ago, February 18, 2003.

Jeon Yong-nam, who was 62 at the time, took the subway in Daegu.

As soon as I got a seat, I sat down, and the suspicious behavior of a man sitting across from me caught my eye.

The man continued to open, close and fidget with the bottle of water next to him, and then pulled something out of his pocket.

he was a lighter

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Yongnam was startled when he realized that the suspicious man was trying to smoke, and he stopped him by saying, "Look, why are you turning on the lighter?"

Just then, the train entered Jungang-ro Station, and the suspicious man's trousers caught fire.

When the train door opened, people dragged the man out and put out the fire urgently.

But a bigger problem arose.

All the lights on this man were turned off, but the place where the man was sitting was burning brightly.

There was gasoline in the vial.

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A startled engineer ran out and started putting out the fire with a fire extinguisher.

But instead of extinguishing it, the fire spread to the seat next to it.

One minute after the fire, the first call was received.

The speed at which the fire spread was unusual, and the fire gradually moved to another room.

The smoke came out and it was difficult to breathe.

I'm not waiting for 911 to come.

Passengers started escaping.

The train platform is on the 3rd basement floor.

To escape, you have to go up the stairs, go through the ticket gate on the 2nd basement floor, go up to the 1st basement floor, go through the shopping mall area, and find the aboveground exit.

At that time, there were at least 200 people on the 3rd basement floor.

I climbed to avoid the smoke and toxic gas, but a high-voltage electric wire exploded behind me, so sparks exploded again.

It's Abi Gyu-hwan

But then, the wind blows from somewhere.

The identity of this wind is that a train is coming into the platform on the other side.

It was the 1080 train.

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Room 1080, unaware that there was a fire at Jungang-ro Station, were calm.

The train stops and the door opens, and suddenly smoke pours in.

The train dropped off a few passengers and closed its doors quickly.

The rest of the passengers just sat still.

Why did you stand still?

We'll be leaving soon, so there's an announcement asking us to be patient.

I don't think it's a big deal, I just waited.

But the train that said it's leaving soon doesn't start.

The stinky smoke keeps coming in, and the electricity goes off and on and on.

Only then did the passengers of 1080 look out the window in amazement and find that the train 1079 across the street was burning.

people are outraged

It seems dangerous to go out, and the smoke and smell gets worse as we wait.

Some passengers left when the door opened briefly, but most of them just sat there.

The fire spread to train 1080, and passengers just dialed 911.

Over 150 calls were made in 20 minutes.

The fire department is in a state of emergency.

Fire trucks and ambulances from all over Daegu were dispatched at once.

Firefighters entered the scene for rescue.

Getting to the site was not easy.

The black smoke obscured the view, and the heat from the fire was enough to burn firefighters in arson suits.

Even so, the crew moved and moved the fallen people frantically.

But the situation only got worse.

It was in a state of being inaccessible to the 3rd basement floor, where the train was located, even with a fire protection suit.

The flame continued for 1 hour and 40 minutes, and the full-scale firefighting work was only possible after the flame was extinguished.

There were no survivors on the 3rd basement floor, and the train had burned down, leaving only the bones of people inside.

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the special nature of the subway, it was impossible to know who got on and how many people were on it, so it was impossible to identify the victim.

As a result, a large number of people who had no contact with their families flocked to Jungang-ro Station.

They desperately went to the hospital to find their family.

However, even 10 hours after the incident, it was difficult for many people to even check whether their family was alive or dead.

Among those people was Jeon Jae-young.

My home is Gimcheon, Gyeongbuk, and I came to Daegu to find my wife Park Mi-young, who came to Daegu for hospital treatment that day, and her 7-year-old daughter Hyejin.

However, his wife and daughter could not be found anywhere on the list of injured and dead.

In just one day, my wife and daughter were caught on CCTV in Daegu Station, just before Jungang-ro Station.

A picture of a wife and daughter holding hands and going down the subway stairs.

And they were on the 1080 train.

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People like Jae-young were lined up, but there weren't many ways for them to find their family.

All that was left in the train were a few ashes and burnt-out items, and in particular, there were so many remains that it was impossible to tell who was in the family.

The police forensics team and forensic scientists from the National Forensic Service were mobilized to start excavating the remains.

The family of the missing person wrote down a list of belongings that the family probably had, which would not be burned, and delivered it to the remains excavation team.

In response, Jaeyoung wrote down the anti-missing necklace that his daughter was wearing and the gift watch that his wife was wearing.

Her mother, Myeong-ae Hwang, who was searching for her 19-year-old daughter Sangsang Yang, also wrote down her daughter's belongings, including her ribbon-shaped ring that she had given her daughter and the glasses she was wearing.

Myeong-ae said, "I want my daughter to be alive, but the reality is that her mother said, 'My child died here' and had to create her material." I cried as I recalled the situation at the time.

Daegu subway fire disaster.

Why did such a tragedy happen?

The starting point of the disaster was Kim Dae-han, a 56-year-old arsonist at the time.

He had no mental illness and had no ex-convicts, and he said he was pessimistic about the world due to the deterioration of his health that began two years ago.

It was unfair to die alone, so I purposely committed the crime by targeting a time and place where there were many people with the intention of dying together.

This absurd arson caused 350 casualties, of which 192 were killed.

But there are things I don't understand.

74% of all fatalities in this accident came from Train No. 1080, which entered the platform late.

No one was killed in Room 1079, the first fire.

What was the reason for the concentration of deaths in Room 1080?

In the subway station, there is a general command room that controls all situations.

Watching dozens of monitors, real-time monitoring to see if the train is well at the station and what has happened.

The fire in Room 1079 was 9:52 a.m.

The command room monitor also caught fire and smoke covering the train.

But in reality, the general command room didn't do anything.

No one was looking at the monitor.

But there was another chance.

One minute after the fire broke out, the fire detector worked.

Immediately, an alarm sounded from the command room, and a warning message stating that there was a fire at Jungang-ro Station appeared.

But this time I didn't do anything.

They said that the fire warning had sounded wrong before, and I thought it was a malfunction.

In the end, it was only three minutes after the fire that the command room found out about the fire.

It was 9:55 am.

At that time, Room 1080 was still at the previous station.

It was the train with 7-year-old Hyejin, her mother, 19-year-old Sangim, and hundreds of passengers on board.

I just need to block this train that hasn't entered Jungang-ro Station yet.

However, the command room only delivered the words, “There is a fire at Jungang-ro Station, so drive carefully when entering.”

The engineer in Room 1080 thought it was no big deal and entered Jungang-ro Station, and found the smoke only after entering the platform.

And even though it was possible to pass without a stop, the engineer stopped at Jungang-ro Station as there was no order.

Four minutes after the fire, passengers in Room 1080 waited for the train to leave because of the announcement that they were leaving soon.

The engineer or the command center had to evacuate the passengers, but they did not broadcast the evacuation, and were focused only on the departure of the train.

After 5 minutes of wasted time, the electricity was cut off and the engineer, who was unable to communicate with the command room, pushed the button to open the train door belatedly, but the door did not open as the electricity was cut off.

Passengers trapped in the train.

The train was filled with toxic gases and heat, leaving the passengers defenseless.

In Room 5, passengers broke windows and several people escaped, and in Room 4, a station attendant who was just on board manually opened the door to help them escape.

But most passengers couldn't even think of opening the door manually.

In this situation, the engineer opened only one or two doors of the 1st car manually, and then only he hurriedly escaped.

It was not easy for passengers who escaped from the train to get out of Jungang-ro Station in a situation where it was difficult to tell where the stairs were or where the exit was and it was difficult to breathe.

In particular, there were a lot of people who were blocked by the fire shutter and collapsed.

I later found out that there were numerous handprints and footprints on the blackened fire shutters.

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caused by talent. If even one person had played their part, no one would have died. This accident caused 350 casualties.

More shocking things continued.

Afterwards, the suspicion that the subway construction company was trying to cover up the incident was revealed.

At that time, the engineer in Room 1080, who succeeded in escaping, hid for 11 hours, and during this time, the executives of the subway construction took him from place to place and had him write a police officer and had a meeting.

And the day after the fire, to his absurdity, 200 soldiers were sent in, sweeping the debris with brooms and shovels, and cleaning the water.

The family was struggling to find one more thing, but they threw it all away.

The remains and belongings of the missing people were later found in the dumped garbage bag.

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The real culprit behind this accident, which had no choice but to become a major disaster, was the subway itself.

The first arsonist sprayed 2 liters of gasoline, and it makes no sense to burn down both trains with that amount.

This was a matter of subway safety standards at the time.

There are no detailed standards for subway equipment materials, and there are no standards for the most deadly toxic gas in case of fire.

The subway chairs at that time, which were made of sponge material with a cloth cover, burned very well.

Although regular flame-retardant treatment is essential, it has been found that the Daegu subway has not been subjected to flame-retardant treatment even once since opening.

It was a cheap pyrotechnic iron made with complacency and not strict standards.

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10 people have been prosecuted for the Daegu subway fire disaster.

The arson criminal Daehan-eun Kim was sentenced to life in prison, and the engineer in Room 1080 was sentenced to five years in prison.

But no one was responsible for making the sparker train.

And the damage was passed on to the bereaved families and survivors.

the saddest exhibition in the world was held after the accident on that day that should never be forgotten.

As an exhibition of remains of the victims, each piece of oil excavated from the National Fruit Tree was photographed and displayed.

If he sees it and thinks it belongs to his family, he will let you know, and he will compare the remains with that.

I found my family, with 678 items of oil in 4,000 photos.

The exhibition hall was filled with tears of people looking for their family's belongings.

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Hwang Myeong-ae also found her daughter's belongings here.

Her mother, who only wished her daughter was alive, collapsed when she saw the picture of her, knowing that she was my child's stuff.

Myeong-ae said, "At that time, she thought, 'Now, really, you're gone', 'No matter how much your mother denied you, you went.'" she said with tears in her eyes.

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Jeon Jae-young also found his wife's watch and daughter Hye-jin's necklace.

Jae-young, who lost her will to escape and saw the last traces of her wife who only tried to protect her child, also shed tears.

It took a total of three months to recover the remains, and a joint funeral was held on June 29 of that year.

The pain wasn't just for the bereaved family.

Even the survivors had a hard time recovering into their daily lives.

The survivors suffered from the aftermath of the accident and also suffered from the guilt that they were the only survivors.

This year marks the 19th anniversary of the Daegu subway fire disaster.

Right after the accident, everyone was heartbroken just like mine, but as time went on, people said, 'Forget it now' and 'Stop it now'.

But there are still people who can't forget their loved ones.

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Father Yoon Geun, who lost his 25-year-old daughter Ji-eun in an accident that day, released a tape he had recorded his daughter's voice for 25 years to give as a wedding gift.

The tape contains the cry of a newborn baby born in 1979, as well as the cute voice of a young Ji-eun who is showing affection towards her father.

Yoon Geun said, "My daughter passed away in an accident, so there was no one to give it to me." "Now I hear the voice alone. The daughter I should be gratefully welcomed is not leaving."

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A lot has changed after the Daegu subway disaster.

All subway equipment materials have been replaced with non-combustible or extremely flame-retardant materials, and a fire preparedness manual has been prepared.

Also, there is a button that can make an emergency stop when a problem occurs on the platform.

The security we enjoy today is the legacy they left us.

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The Daegu subway disaster must never be forgotten.

There are no memorial monuments or memorial parks to remember and commemorate the heartbreaking tragedy.

In fact, at the time, a park was prepared with donations and government subsidies, but it was named 'Citizen's Safety Theme Park'.

The reason is that the word 'memorial' gives people disgust.

It was built with a promise to change the name later, but the name has not been changed yet.

Even now, we should reflect on the meaning of the word commemoration and think about what is the right way to remember and remember them.

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(SBS Entertainment News reporter Kang Seon-ae)