A fire swept through a South Korean hospice for elderly and infirm patients early Wednesday, killing 21 people in what police suspect was an act of arson by an 81-year-old suffering from dementia.
The high death toll is likely to fuel an already intense debate over safety standards in South Korea, which is still reeling from last month’s ferry disaster that left some 300 dead — most of them schoolchildren.
It was the second deadly fire in two days after seven people were killed in a blaze at a bus terminal near Seoul on Monday.
Most of Wednesday’s victims died from asphyxiation, rescue officials said, as the fire on the upper floor of the three-storey facility filled the rooms and corridors with toxic clouds of choking smoke.
Another seven people were injured, six of whom were in critical condition from smoke inhalation.
The fire broke out shortly after midnight at the hospice in Jangseong county about 190 miles (300 kilometres) south of Seoul.
The facility cared for almost 80 chronically ill, often bedridden patients, including stroke victims and advanced Alzheimer’s sufferers.
Local police chief Roh Kyoo-Ho said an 81-year-old male patient with dementia had been taken into custody after CCTV footage showed him entering a storage room where the fire was believed to have started.
