"We Moved Here 5 Days Ago So Our Daughter Could Go to Medical School"... The Eunma Tragedy: No Sprinklers Installed

[The Financial News] A fire at Eunma Town Apartments in Daechi-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul, on the 24th left four casualties. It has emerged that the deceased, a 16-year-old girl identified as A, had moved into the apartment around the 19th, just five days before the fire, while dreaming of entering medical school, deepening the sense of tragedy.

The fire broke out at around 6:18 a.m. on the 8th floor of the 14-story Eunma Town Apartments. A, who lived there, died in the blaze. Her mother, in her 40s, and her younger sister, a teenager, suffered facial burns and smoke inhalation before being rescued by firefighters and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. A woman in her 50s living on the floor above also inhaled smoke and was rescued by the fire authorities. All of the injured are reported to be in stable condition and not in life-threatening danger.
A resident living on a lower floor said, "I heard people shouting that there was a fire outside and evacuated in a hurry," and added, "A's mother came down in her pajamas and kept telling the firefighter, 'One of my children didn't make it out.'"
A, who was set to start high school this year, had moved into this apartment around the 19th, five days before the fire, while nurturing a dream of going to medical school. Eunma Town Apartments in Daechi-dong, known as the city's top education district, is a complex where demand for leases surges before the new school year as parents flock there in search of better school districts.
A's father, who had left for work before the fire broke out, told The Chosun Ilbo, "She was a daughter who had always ranked first throughout middle school. Who could have imagined something like this would happen just five days after we moved to Daechi-dong for our child, whose dream was to become a doctor?" he said, expressing his grief.

Some observers say that the age and deterioration of Eunma Town Apartments, completed in 1979, along with inadequate fire safety systems and delays in fire truck access, contributed to the scale of the damage. Because Eunma Town Apartments was built before 1992, when sprinkler installation became mandatory under the Fire Services Act, the building is not equipped with sprinklers. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters, all 116 people who died in 10,602 residential fires over the past five years were in homes without sprinkler systems.
bng@fnnews.com Kim Hee-sun Reporter