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Death toll rises to 7 in S.Korean blaze at bus terminal
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DEATH toll rose to seven with those injured increasing to 58 Tuesday in a blaze that occurred at a bus terminal in a South Korean city the previous day, local media reported.
The fire, which started at about 9 a.m. Monday and was put out some 20 minutes later, broke out at a food court in the first basement level of the Goyang Bus Terminal complex in Goyang, a city northwest of Seoul.
The death toll was said earlier to have reached six, but one more survivor who suffered serious injury ended up dead. The number of those wounded increased to 58 as survivors went to hospitals the next day on aftereffects from the suffocation.
Among those injured, six sustained serious injury and two remained unconscious, boosting fears over a rise in the death toll. The dead and wounded were suffocated by poisonous gas.
A group of forensic experts, police officers, prosecutors and firefighters were conducting a joint investigation at the scene to determine the exact cause of the accident.
The fire was believed to have been caused by sparks flown from welding works made in a snack bar at the food court, where workers were doing an interior construction to open the restaurant.
After the fire broke out on the first basement level, black and heavy smoke went up fast. Fireproof shutters failed to operate, and smoke billowed swiftly into the second floor, contributing to the rise in casualties.
Most of the dead were found in the toilet and the staircase on the second floor of the seven-story complex. The curtain to prevent fumes from spreading was confirmed to have worked normally.
The complex, which can accommodate as much as 250 buses a day, was opened in June 2012. It is composed of a movie-theater on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors, business offices on the fourth floor, shopping center on the third floor and the bus terminal on the first and second floors.
The first basement accommodates food court and shopping center, and at the second basement level is discount chain Homplus located. When the big fire broke out, the discount chain was not opened.
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