Seoul bldg fire claims lives of 29 people

SEOUL, Dec 22 (AFP): Flammable materials on the outside of a South Korean building fuelled a major blaze that killed 29 people, experts said Friday, evoking comparisons with the Grenfell Tower disaster in London.

The fire engulfed an eight-storey tower in the southern city of Jecheon, killing 29 people and injuring 29 more. 20 of the dead were found at a female sauna and others elsewhere in the building, which also houses a fitness centre and restaurants.

Experts said the structure was a fire trap waiting to happen, with insufficient emergency exits, flammable finishing materials and illegally parked cars blocking access to fire trucks.

Street surveillance video footage showed orange flames and black smoke billowing from the ceiling of a ground floor parking lot underneath the stilted building, which stood on pillars.

The fire spread quickly upwards along the outside walls of the tower, which contained cheap but highly flammable finishing materials.

"There were three or four exploding sounds and I saw the fire on the ground floor quickly jump upwards along the outside walls," said one eyewitness. It reportedly took only seven minutes for the entire building to be engulfed in smoke and flames.

Engineering Professor Chung Sang-Man at Kongju University said the tower had cladding materials made of a cement and foam sandwich, which are widely used for insulation but prone to spreading fire.

"Inflammable finishing materials have been a great source of problem in major blazes," he said, citing the Grenfell Tower inferno in June that killed 71 people, among others.

The London fire started with a faulty refrigerator on the fourth floor of the building owned by the local authority, but rapidly spread up the 24-storey tower, which had new cladding on the outside.