Seoul hotel fire: eight arrested
(N.Z. Press Association-Copyright) SEOUL, December 28.
South Korean authorities made eight arrests before dawn today in connection with the Christmas Day hotel fire in which 158 persons lost their lives and 68 were injured.
The Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office arrested the owner of the hotel, Kim Yong-San, and four others associated with it on charges of carelessness and improper construction of a building. Two former city officials and a fire officer were also arrested, on charges of negligence by failure to make proper inspection of the 22stbrey Taeyongak Hotel after it was built two years ago.
The death toll of the fire, which burned for 10 hours, included one American, eight Japanese, one Indian and one Turk.
The police allege that the 222-room luxury hotel violated many fire regulations; it lacked sufficient fire-fight-ing equipment, emergency exits and other safety facilities. In addition, the gas range that exploded in a second-floor coffee shop, and started the fire, did not meet official safey requirements
and was of sub-standard qua! ity, the police say.
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Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32801, 29 December 1971, Page 13
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176Seoul hotel fire: eight arrested Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32801, 29 December 1971, Page 13
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