South Korea warehouse blaze kills 40: report

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

ICHEON, South Korea (AFP) — Forty people were killed Monday and ten others injured following a fierce blaze in a South Korean refrigerated warehouse, firefighters and reports said.

About 200 firefighters were sent into the basement of the two-storey building in Icheon, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Seoul, after the fire was put out. Yonhap news agency said 40 bodies were recovered.

"Most bodies were so badly damaged that it was impossible to identify them on the spot," Woo Sung-Shik, a fire department official here told AFP, adding the rescue work had been hampered by toxic fumes.

The victims included ethnic Koreans from China, according to television reports. Firefighters said 10 people were sent to hospital for burns or for fume inhalation.

The...