In December 1971, on the very day of Christmas - the 25th, a fire broke out in one of the most modern hotels in Seoul (the capital of South Korea) "Dai-Yun-Kak". It was ten o'clock in the morning, and most of the hotel guests were in the restaurant on the thirteenth floor. These were aristocratic guests, and the hotel was considered fashionable. Built three years ago, it met all service requirements.
Those gathered for the Christmas holiday were already raising their glasses. But when solemn toasts sounded at the festively decorated table, a fire broke out in the cafe-bar on the second floor. First, the liquid propane spilled in the kitchen from a faulty cylinder ignited. A nylon carpet instantly burst from it, and the flame immediately burst through it into the hall, and then quickly flew into the hotel lobby. At the same time, three waitresses immediately died from the explosion in the cafe, and the fourth received severe burns.
From the lobby - over carpets and plastic wall cladding - the fire began to spread rapidly throughout the building. Choking smoke instantly filled the stairwells, elevator shafts and began to penetrate the hotel rooms.
Panic arose among the visitors and staff. People rushed through the corridors in search of a way out, and fire and smoke chased them on their heels. They were suffocating in the corridors, in the elevators stuck between floors, at emergency exits, which for some reason were locked.
The flame was already raging with might and main, but this was only the beginning: the fire was rapidly gaining strength. Within minutes, the 21-story Dai-Yun-Kak building turned into a flaming torch. Glass panels burst with a terrible roar, spraying red-hot fragments in all directions. People pleading for help appeared in the window openings. Some, mad with fear and terror, threw themselves down and crashed against the pavement or the roofs of lower neighboring buildings. One man, half unconscious, threw himself out of the window with the mattress, apparently deciding that it would soften the blow. And he was not alone. Forty corpses were then picked up on the pavement.
All the fire equipment available in Seoul was pulled to the burning hotel. But the water jets were supplied from the ground or from the platforms of articulated lifts, and this had little effect on extinguishing the fire. And the water, as is often the case, was not enough.
Some people were evacuated using fire escapes, but none of them rose above the eighth floor. Driven by fire and smoke, some of the guests managed to reach the flat roof of the hotel. But even here they could not find salvation, although helicopters circled over the burning hotel. However, huge clouds of smoke and powerful currents of hot air did not allow the helicopters to get so close to the building that they could throw rescue ropes on the roof or through the windows. The helicopters were able to help only a few people, but one of them could not hold on to the rope and fell from a height of one hundred meters.
The flame raged for several hours, and during this time everything that could only burn out. Only eight hours later, firefighters in heat-reflective suits and under the cover of water jets were able to enter the burned-out hotel. On the cracked cement of the ceilings, on the twisted metal beams and rods, they found charred corpses. Many victims were found in the corridors and hotel rooms.
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An elderly diplomat from the island of Taiwan managed to survive miraculously. He was seen even earlier: wrapped in a blanket, he stood in the window of the eleventh floor. They tried to throw a rescue rope from a helicopter, but to no avail. And then they found him sitting up to his neck in water in a filled bath. Miraculously, the surviving diplomat was taken to the hospital. Of course, this man's composure played a big role in this miracle. But no less this can be explained by some bizarre accident, the play of air currents that saved the person sitting in the bath from suffocation.
The Seoul disaster, in terms of the number of victims and the amount of damage caused, is still considered one of the worst tragedies ever to befall hotels. While investigating the cause, Seoul police detained ten people suspected of omissions that led to such disastrous consequences. The director and owner of the hotel were accused of violating construction rules and ignoring fire safety requirements. Emergency exit locations were inaccurately marked during construction, and flammable materials were used to decorate the hotel. For example, the suspended ceilings, walls in the corridors and the lobby were decorated with rice paper, rice straw and wood paneling, which is why the fire spread so rapidly.
The Dai-Yun-Kak building was of a frame type in the shape of the Latin letter "L". It consisted of two vertical sections, each 21 stories high. One wing was 47 meters long, the other 54 meters long, and the sections were divided by a brick wall. In one wing there was a hotel, in the other - the offices of several South Korean and foreign firms. In the hotel section, only one staircase was the only escape route, because it was the only staircase leading to the lobby.
The hotel and commercial areas of the building were equipped with push-button fire alarm systems, but there was no direct communication between the alarm devices and the fire brigade. Now, of course, it is already impossible to establish whether anyone has pressed this signal button at all.
From the book: "HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS". N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev