Local resident becomes super-hero for saving people from arson

News of a brave citizen who broke down the door of an adult arcade with a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the fire at the scene of an arson incident in Yeongam-gun, South Jeolla Province, has gained attention. Kim Soo-cheol (age 55) spoke with a reporter over the phone on Wednesday and described the urgent situation at the time.

The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. on Aug 1 at an adult arcade on the first floor of a commercial building in Samho-eup, Yeongam. A (age 63), an illegal Chinese national, started the fire, seriously injuring two customers and causing minor injuries to two individuals, which included an employee and a customer. He died at the scene of the fire.

Kim, who runs a restaurant nearby, heard from a local resident that someone had locked the door to the adult arcade, poured gasoline inside, and set it on fire.” Alarmed, Kim ran to the arcade, which was about 20 meters away. The fire was spreading, and residents could not dare approach the scene as the situation was precarious.

Kim’s first thought was to ‘save people first.’ He picked up a wooden chair nearby and started hitting the glass door of the game room. The police had also arrived and pounded on the glass door with a triple baton. But it did not break easily.

Kim had to come up with another idea. Quickly looking around, he found a red fire extinguisher in front of the seafood market across the street. He ran to retrieve it and hit the glass door again, which finally broke. He pulled out the fire extinguisher hose and started extinguishing the fire.

During Kim’s actions over a two-to-three-minute span, four people, including customers and employees, managed to escape through the back door. Firefighters had arrived and started a full-scale fire extinguisher.

Kim’s hand was torn by a piece of glass, which he was not even aware of felt pain at that time. “My only focus was that people would be able to escape if I broke the glass,” he said.


Hyeong-Ju Lee peneye09@donga.com