Around the World

Around the World

54 killed in fire in an illegal beer hall

Authorities said 97 of the 129 known victims were under the age of 18, the legal drinking age in Korea, and the youngest person killed in the blaze was just 13.

Many of the teenagers died from inhaling smoke and toxic fumes in a second-floor beer hall and a third-floor billiard room in a building that had blocked windows, narrow corridors, only one small exit, and no sprinklers, officials and witnesses said yesterday. Police arrested four workers for alleged safety violations and were reportedly searching for the owner of the beer hall, which was a popular teen hangout known as a place where underage revelers could buy alcoholic drinks.

Eight days before the inferno, police had ordered the beer hall to be shut down for doing business without a license, and a spot check by local authorities on Wednesday found the establishment was closed, Lee Se Young, chief of the city's Jung Ju district, said yesterday.

From her hospital bed, one seriously burned high school student told her family and friends that after the fire broke out, but before it began to spread, the bar manager allegedly told his staff to lock the door of the beer hall and not let the customers leave until they paid for their drinks. He then allegedly left.

Survivor Ko Jin Mi, 16, who was in the intensive-care unit suffering from burns and smoke inhalation, scrawled the allegations in a note to a friend and repeated them to her older sister, but two local officials said they had no information and could not confirm her story. However, an inspection of the door showed that the frame of the bar's steel door was severely bent and damaged on the inside in what might have been an effort to open it.

The local fire chief, Kim Myong Hwan, said that when firefighters arrived, they found the bar steel door open. However, Kim said, the windows did not open and were made of a thick, reinforced glass that the youngsters were unable to break. Had they been able to vent the smoke or jump from

the windows, he said, they might have survived.

The fire was the worst blaze in South Korea since 1974. It raised fresh concerns about disaster safety in a nation where 19 kindergarten children

and four adults died just four months ago in a summer camp fire that was blamed on corrupt officials overlooking egregious fire safety violations.

According to local media reports, officials believe that the blaze broke out in an underground karaoke bar that was undergoing renovation, when a

spark from a broken lightbulb ignited pain thinner. The blaze then spread up through the four-story wood-and brick building, a 20-year-old

structure that was located in the entertainment district on Inchon, South Korea's third-largest city. Those in a ground-floor restaurant managed to

escape, but more than 120 people who were upstairs were trapped.

Ko Kyung Mi, 20, the older sister of burn victim Ko Jin Mi, said she had passed by the bar Saturday night and saw the fire at about 6:50 p.m., but

did not realize until she saw a television news report later that evening that her younger sister was inside.

``I've been to that place several times as well,'' she told the Los Angeles Times. ``It's very small, a very closed space with very small entrances and

lots of chairs and furniture,'' making it difficult to move around, she said.

``Everyone knows this bar is just for youngsters,'' she said, adding that she suspected the bar had an informant that tipped them off when

authorities were to inspect the establishment. ``Every time the police had a surprise inspection, the owner kicked the children out and shut down the

bar,'' Ko Kyung Mi said. ``But I am sure that the police knew about the situation.''

As Ko walked by the building Saturday evening, she said she saw the fire spreading, then heard a booming sound and saw the windows of the

building as well as external wires blow out.

``I saw some children coming down at the beginning of the fire but for some reason, once the fire started to spread, no one was coming down any

more.'' she said. ``My sister is the only survivor of all of her friends who were there. She is the only one.''

Ko Kyung Mi quoted her sister Ko Jin Mi as telling her that ``the owner of the bar said to lock the door, and then ran away.'' A classmate, Kim

Nang Oh, 16, who came to Incha University Hospital to visit Ko Jin Mi, said the injured girl had also written her a note charging that the bar

manager had locked the beer hall door from the outside.

LA TIMES-WASHINGTON POST-10-31-99 0104EDT

Mistakes possible in Chechnya bombings

His remarks marked the first time a top Russian official had responded with anything but a flat "no" to reports of indiscriminate bombing, rocketingß and shelling during the month-long assault on separatist guerrillas.

11-01-99