Why did #1080 become Jihwacheol?
In SBS 'The Story of the Day Biting the Tail' (hereafter 'Kkokomu'), which was broadcast on the 5th, the story of a day that should never happen again was lit with the title 'The Untold Voice: Mystery of Jihwa Iron No. 1080'. did.
On February 18, 2003, Jeon Yong-nam got on the Daegu subway.
However, a suspicious man was spotted opposite him.
The man had a bottle of water in one of his hands, fiddled with something in his pocket, and pulled it out of his pocket.
This is the lighter.
The suspicious man tried to light a lighter in the subway, and when Mr. Jeon saw it, he stopped him.
However, the moment train No. 1079 they were on entered Daegu Jungang-ro Station, the suspicious man's pants caught fire.
Jeon and others hurriedly put out the fire.
However, the fire that spread from the man's trousers spread quickly.
The first call was made within a minute of the fire, but the speed at which the fire spread was beyond imagination.
The passengers hurriedly escaped without waiting any longer.
However, their escape was not smooth.
Jungangno Station, where the subway platform is located on the 3rd basement level, had to go through the ticket gate on the 2nd basement floor, the shopping mall buildings on the 1st basement floor, and then go to the ground level to get out.
At that time, there were about 200 people in the platform on the 3rd basement floor alone, and they escaped in a panic.
But then the wind blew from somewhere.
Train 1080 was coming into the opposite platform.
Passengers in Room 1080, unaware of the fire, were calm.
But I didn't even know that the subway had stopped at the platform.
The smoke from the fire had already obscured the view, so it was dark all around.
The door of the train, unaware of this, opened and smoke filled the open door.
The train dropped off a few passengers and quickly closed its doors.
And after the announcement that the train will be leaving soon, he did not intend to move.
The passengers in Room 1080 only now know about the fire accident in Room 1079.
However, they could not get off most of the trains and waited for the train to leave this place quickly.
However, at that time, the fire was transferred to the 1080 train, and the 1080 was also in a state of paralysis.
There were calls from passengers who were surprised by the sudden fire, and more than 150 calls were made in 20 minutes at that time.
The fire department is in a state of emergency.
Fire trucks and ambulances from all over Daegu were dispatched at once to this case, which is the Daegu subway fire disaster.
The scene was a mess.
Nevertheless, firefighters enter the scene to rescue.
However, it was not easy for them to get to the site of the fire.
The smoke obscured the view and the heat from the fire was enough to burn firefighters in fireproof suits.
Still, the crew moved and moved those who fell.
And the situation gradually got worse.
The third basement floor, where the train was located, was in a state of being inaccessible even with fire-proof clothing.
The flame continued for 1 hour and 40 minutes, and the full-fledged firefighting work was only possible after the flame was extinguished.
As a result, there was not even a single survivor on the third basement floor, and in particular, the train was burnt with only the bones of people left.
Due to the special nature of the subway, it is unknown who got on or how many people were on it, and thousands 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 confirm whether their family was alive or not.
Jae-young, unable to reach his wife and daughter, came to Daegu to find them.
However, there was no list of injured or dead.
And he caught his wife and daughter on CCTV at Jungang-ro Station.
It was the last time he was holding his hand and going down the stairs.
And it was the 1080 train that they boarded.
People like Jae-young lined up, but there were not many ways for them to find their family.
All that was left in the train were some of the ashes and burned-out items, and in particular, there were so many remains that it was impossible to know who was in the family.
Accordingly, the police forensics team and forensic scientists from the National Forensic Service have mobilized all to begin excavating the remains.
And the families of the missing people wrote down a list of belongings that the unburnt family might have had and delivered them to the remains excavation team.
In response, Jae-young wrote down the anti-missing necklace worn by his daughter and the gift watch that his wife was wearing.
And a mother, who was searching for her 19-year-old daughter, wrote down her daughters' belongings, which contained stories with her daughter.
To this, the mother said, "I want my daughter to be alive, but the reality is that the mother said that my child is dead here and had to create the material. showed tears
The arsonist who set fire to the subway at the time was Kim Dae-han, then 56.
He was pessimistic about the world as his health deteriorated 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 ridiculous arson killed 350 people, of which 192 were killed.
But there were things I couldn't understand.
74% of all fatalities in this accident came from train 1080.
And in Room 1079, where the first fire broke out, there were no fatalities.
What was the reason for the concentration of deaths in Room 1080?
The control tower general command center, which is supposed to control everything that happens at the subway station, did not take any action against this accident.
There were three employees, but no one witnessed the fire in Room 1079.
As a result, room 1080 could not be blocked from entering Jungangno Station.
In particular, the general command office considered the fire alarm and warning phrases that sounded within one minute of the fire as malfunctioning and did not take any action.
It was three minutes after the fire broke out that the station staff at the time were surprised to learn about the fire in Room 1079.
It is 9:55 am at this time.
And at that time, No. 1080 was stopped at Daegu Station, the station before Jungangno Station.
The command room should have blocked Room 1080's entry right away, but it didn't.
Instead, the command center left only the words, "There is a fire at Jungang-ro Station, so drive carefully when entering."
So I thought that No. 1080 was no big deal and entered Jungang-ro Station, and found the smoke only after entering the platform.
And the engineer stopped at Jungang-ro Station because there was no order even though it was possible to pass without a stop.
Four minutes after the fire, passengers waited for the train to leave because of the announcement that they were leaving soon.
The engineer or 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.
Passengers were exposed defenseless to a situation where the inside of the train was full of toxic gases and heat.
In Room 5, passengers broke windows and several people escaped.
However, it was unthinkable for most of them to manually open the door.
In this situation, the engineer manually opened only the door of the No. 1 car and 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, many people were blocked by fire shutters and fell.
Numerous handprints and footprints were caught on the blackened fire shutter.
No one would have died if at least one person had done their part, but this accident caused 350 casualties.
More shocking things continued.
Afterwards, suspicions were revealed that the subway construction company was trying to cover up the incident.
At that time, the engineer in Room 1080, who succeeded in escaping, hid for 11 hours, during which 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, 200 soldiers were mobilized to order cleaning for normalization.
As a result, the soldiers swept up the debris from the accident site and even cleaned it with water.
All the belongings that will be valuable clues to the bereaved family's search for their family were dumped in garbage bags.
In fact, more than 150 remains and belongings of the missing people were found in the dumped garbage bags.
However, the real culprit in this accident that had no choice but to become a major disaster was the subway itself.
Both trains were burned down by 2 liters of gasoline sprayed by the arsonist, which was a problem with subway safety standards at the time.
There are no detailed standards for materials for subway equipment, and in particular, there are no standards related to the most deadly toxic gas in case of fire.
The subway chair made of sponge material with a cloth cover burned the most.
It was found that although regular flame-retardant treatment is essential, Daegu subway has not been subjected to flame-retardant treatment even once since opening.
It was a cheap jihwacheol made with complacency and not strict standards.
Ten people have been prosecuted for this accident.
The arsonist and the engineer of Room 1080 were sentenced to prison, but no one was held responsible for making the igniter Jihwacheol.
And the damage was passed on to the bereaved families and survivors.
After the accident, the bereaved family went to an exhibition.
They went to an exhibition of remains of the victims.
In this exhibition, which took pictures of the relics excavated at the site and displayed them, the bereaved families found the remains of their families, and based on this, they found the remains of their families.
A mother, who only wished her daughter was alive, collapsed when she saw her, knowing it was my child's belongings, and her husband, who had lost her daughter and wife, lost the will to escape and saw the last traces of his wife, who was only trying to protect her children. I saw it and wept.
The pain was not limited to the bereaved families.
It was difficult for the survivors to return to 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 disaster.
Right after the accident, my heart ached like mine, but as time went on, people told me to stop and forget about it.
But there were still people who couldn't forget their loved ones.
A father, who had recorded his daughter's voice for 25 years on tape to make the most precious gift for her daughter's wedding gift, said, "Now I can only hear the voice alone.
But in fact, we had an obligation to remember, even if the day our bereaved family forgets it.
A lot has changed since the Daegu subway disaster.
All subway equipment materials were replaced with non-combustible or extremely flame-retardant materials, and a fire preparedness manual was prepared.
In addition, there is a button that can make an emergency stop when a problem occurs on the platform.
The security we now enjoy is the legacy they left us, and we all owe a great debt.
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 Safety Theme Park.
The reason was that the word remembrance gave people disgust.
They promised to change the name later, but it was still not done, which added to the regret.
Even now, we will have to reflect on the meaning of the word remembrance and think about a better way to remember and remember them as a remnant by correcting the wrong and repaying the debt for the legacy they left behind.
(SBS Entertainment News Editor Kim Hyo-jung)