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Safety system blamed for S Korean subway inferno

AFP, Daegu
The subway inferno in this southeastern city was a disaster waiting to happen, experts said yesterday as investigators launched a probe into why so many people died.
The toll in the arson attack stood at 125 after 72 bodies were recovered from the wreckage late Tuesday, Daegu City mayor Cho Hae-Nyong said.
Most victims died from inhaling toxic smoke, according to hospital authorities. Many were trapped in the subway system which was plunged into pitch darkness after power at the Jungangno subway station was automatically shut down when the blaze broke out, experts said.
"The disaster in Daegu showed vividly that the emergency safety measures simply did not work," civil engineering professor Yoon Myeong-O of the University of Seoul said.
"The government must take a serious lesson from this disaster."
Yoon, an expert in subway fire safety, raised questions about how the blaze had been able to spread
so fast as internal fittings on subway trains were supposed to be made of fire-resistant material.
However, materials used in fittings inside the trains apparently crumpled in the intense heat, emitting thick clouds of toxic gases.
Interior furnishings included fibreglass and reinforced plastic, carbonated vinyl and polyethylene, according to experts.
"The failure to cope with the blaze properly in the first minutes of the fire starting must have aggravated the disaster," said Yoon, who added that subway personnel were all expected to have received training for such situations.
"Manuals are necessary for drivers, station workers and commanding officials on how to act in case of emergency and they are required to be well acquainted with them," Yoon said.
The underground station was clogged with black smoke and toxic gas, blinding and suffocating riders within minutes of the fire starting.
The fire broke out in one six-carriage train when a 56-year-old man with a history of mental illness poured gasoline onto the floor and
ignited it, police said.
The fire was already burning strongly when a second train running in the opposite direction approached the station.
"I was told by the station office to drive carefully as there was an accident in the station," the driver of this train was quoted as saying by police. "I did not know the accident meant fire," he said.
By all accounts, there was enough time to stop the second train arriving at the station.
But this train, No. 1080, came to a standstill inside the station and caught fire from the flames which were already sweeping through the first train.
Both six-carriage trains were completely burnt out.
To make the situation worse, the driver of train 1080 hesitated over what to do, keeping riders inside the train for 10 minutes, before he manually opened some of the doors, only to release riders into a wall of toxic smoke, according to media accounts.
Many other panicked riders were locked in the cars, unable to open the doors manually in the smoke-
filled darkness by pulling up the levers under the seats.
There were no sprinklers installed in the platform because of risks of electric short cuts from water and no fluorescent paint was used to indicate exits in darkness.
Most of the 125 victims died on this second train, according to rescue workers.
"This is a man-made disaster of the kind that happens in underdeveloped countries because of the indifference toward safety," said Suh Sang-Sup, a lawmaker of the opposition Grand National Party.
Lawmaker Lee Yoon-Soo of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party said the disaster was aggravated by the failure of emergency safety measures, urging the government to overhaul safety systems on all subway lines in the country.
The Seoul city government on Wednesday ordered changes to emergency safety measures on its vast subway system, including the use of fluorescent paint for exits, fire-proof material for train seats and removal of plastic internal fittings.