Little Has Changed

A hospital blaze in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, only proved how poor fire prevention and safety systems the country has. The fire killed 38 people _ 35 patients, a doctor and two nurses _ and injured 150 others, mostly elderly, after it broke out in the emergency room of Sejong Hospital in the southeastern city, 280 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Friday.

The fire was the deadliest since 2008 when a warehouse blaze in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, claimed the lives of 40 workers. It came just about one month after 29 were killed in a fitness center fire in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province. But it is no surprise given the country's shameful safety track record.

As with the cases of Jecheon and other deadly fires, the tragedy in Miryang could have been prevented if proper precautions had been in place. In this sense, the hospital blaze was certainly a manmade disaster.

At the time of the accident, nearly 180 patients, most of them elderly, were in the five-story hospital building and a nursing home next door. Such a hospital should have had proper anti-fire devices and conducted evacuation training regularly in case of emergency.

Regrettably, however, the building had no sprinklers. Nurses and other medical staff in the emergency room ran out after crying out fire. This indicated they had little or no training on how to fight a fire and help evacuate patients. No doubt this lack of fire prevention measures and a quick repose to emergencies must have led to mass casualties.

Loopholes in the fire-prevention and firefighting regulations are also blamed for the tragedy. The government has toughened the regulations since 2014 when a fire killed 21 people in a nursing home in Jangseong, South Jeolla Province. But the stricter rules are only applied to general hospitals, mental hospitals and nursing homes, of...