Nurse at Icheon Hospital Injured While Evacuating Patients First
Bereaved Family: "Due to Her Personality, She Probably Couldn't Evacuate in Time Because She Was Caring for the Elderly"
A fire broke out in a hospital building in Gwango-dong, Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do. [Image source=Yonhap News]
[Asia Economy Kim Gunchan, Intern Reporter] In the tragic fire incident in Icheon-si, Gyeonggi Province, which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries, it has been reported that a nurse who had worked at the hospital for over 10 years lost her life while trying to evacuate patients first.
On the 5th, a fire broke out in a four-story building housing a dialysis specialty hospital and other facilities in Icheon-si, Gyeonggi Province, resulting in 5 deaths and 42 injuries.
At the time of the fire, the building’s fire safety equipment, including the emergency bell, was functioning normally. Since there were many patients undergoing dialysis on the hospital’s top floor, the 4th floor, the number of casualties was estimated to be high relative to the scale of the fire.
According to a report by Yonhap News on the same day, Nurse A (50), who had worked at the hospital for over 10 years, lost her life.
The fire authorities estimate that although Nurse A had enough time to evacuate, she lost her life while taking measures to evacuate the patients first.
When firefighters entered the building, it was reported that nurses were cutting the dialysis tubes connected to patients’ wrists with scissors and evacuating the patients.
The dialysis tubes could not be removed while in operation, and many patients had limited mobility, which reportedly caused the evacuation to take more time.
Jang Jaegu, Chief of the Icheon Fire Station, stated, "There seemed to be enough time to evacuate, and it appears that the deceased nurse stayed by the patients’ side until the end."
On the afternoon of the 5th, Nurse A’s family, who were in the waiting room for bereaved families at the funeral hall of Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Icheon Hospital, could not hide their shock.
Nurse A’s husband said, "Tomorrow is my father-in-law’s 80th birthday, so we were planning to visit and greet him together..." and was unable to continue. He added, "My wife was a person who diligently carried out the demanding work at the dialysis hospital for a long time, to the extent it was called 'manual labor.' She was known as a 'senior nurse' at the hospital and worked with a sense of duty." He continued, "Because of her caring nature, especially towards elderly patients, she probably could not evacuate in time while attending to them during the fire."
Nurse A’s son, who was serving in the military and had taken leave the day before to spend time at a friend’s house before returning home on the day of the accident, shed tears endlessly upon hearing the news. He said, "Today, when mom got off work, we were supposed to go get glasses together..." and was unable to continue.
The fire started on the 3rd floor at a screen golf center, but smoke spread upward, causing 4 patients and 1 nurse on the 4th floor dialysis specialty hospital to be unable to evacuate in time and perish. At the time, demolition work was underway at the screen golf center. The fire, which started around 10:17 a.m., was extinguished about 1 hour and 10 minutes later, at approximately 11:29 a.m.
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