A daughter calls her mother during a fire

“The hotel is on fire. I think I am going to die. I won’t be able to breathe after five minutes. I am hanging up now.”

Kim Dan-ah called her mother at 7:47 p.m. on Thursday from a hotel in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, which was set on fire. Kim told her mother during their last conversation that firefighters weren’t coming and asked her mother not to hold a funeral and get rid of her journals.

The families of seven victims who lost their lives due to a fire in the hotel broke down in tears. “I got an urgent call from my daughter. I went to the hospital hoping that she is safe but she passed away,” the mother of Kim told a Dong-A Ilbo correspondent on Friday at St. Mary’s Funeral Hall in Bucheon. Kim’s father was standing next to her picture in the funeral hall with red eyes. Kim’s sister who is two years younger than her wiped her tears off next to her father. Kim sent a text to her father on his birthday on Wednesday, wishing him a happy birthday and telling him to enjoy good food with her mother and rest up.

“She doesn’t talk much but she said goodbye to her dad on Thursday,” said Kim’s mother. She cried out over the death of her daughter. Kim was a college student majoring in art.

The family members of other victims who found out about their deaths expressed their grief. A mortuary was set up for a woman in her 40s who lost her life during the fire at Bucheon Funeral Hall in Bucheon. Three family members of her in morning clothes were speechless and couldn’t believe the sudden news. The bereaved families arrived at the funeral hall of Soonchunhyang University Hospital at 1 pm on Friday to take over the bodies of the victims. Some weren’t able to walk in shock and were assisted by the police and hospital staff to the first basement floor of the funeral hall. While some of the bereaved families have yet to be identified, the cause of the fire will be investigated through a joint forensic examination.


손준영 기자 hand@donga.com