“Large Fire” <Part 5>

“Large Fire” <Part 5>

"In the flames"

Written by/Pastor Stephen Yang

Senior Pastor,  Goback Church

http://gobackchurch.org

Feeling that my throat was dry, I knelt on the ground and waited for them.

The sound of running footsteps could be heard faintly in the distance and began to get closer.

Now we are starting to see people running out.

One by one, they began to quickly run out, covering their mouths and noses with their clothes.

As they came out, I asked how many more people were still inside.

As the last one came out, he told me that there was probably no one left.

So I asked him again if he had ever seen a dead person when he came out, 

and he said he had never seen a dead person.

I guided our technicians to the emergency stairs as they emerged one by one from the depths of the burning fire. 

They were then instructed to climb the stairs from the 5th basement level to the 1st basement floor in a crawl 

and to get out of there as quickly as possible to the exit door.

I also warned us that we should never breathe toxic fumes until we go outside.

In the end, everyone escaped safely, but now the last problem that remained was me getting out.

However, when I tried to climb the stairs to get out, the toxic fumes had already reached 2-2.5 feet 

from the floor of the machine room, so I had to crawl completely on my stomach.

Also, because all the stairs from the 5th basement floor to the 1st floor were in a state of unfinished concrete, 

my knees and elbows were all chapped and started to bleed.

While desperately climbing the stairs, when I reached the second basement level, 

I was so out of breath that I ended up inhaling a gulp of toxic fumes.

At that very moment, my entire body lost all strength and I fell face down on the cement stairs. 

Then, I fainted for a moment but came to my senses soon after.

At that time, I felt scared that if I stayed here for a while longer, the toxic smoke would reach the floor 

and I would have no choice but to suffocate there.

So I hurriedly gathered my wits and used all my remaining strength to climb up and get out.

It was a truly terrifying and scary time.

As soon as I came out, without any time to waste, I gathered our company's field executives 

and ordered a personnel inspection of all technicians.

Fortunately, all employees of our company were safe. 

I gave sincere thanks to God.

And soon after, a report came in about the situation inside the machine room.

The flames inside the machine room have now been almost extinguished, but firefighters have confirmed 

and reported that toxic fumes are the main threat.

Firefighters who confirmed the internal situation began extinguishing and controlling the fire, 

and the fire suppression that began in the morning was only completed late at night.

I felt responsible for this entire situation and was prepared to resign, so I reported it to the chairman of our company.

However, the Chairman sent unexpected encouragement and comfort.

It was something to be thankful for.

I formed a team within our company to conduct research and investigation into the cause of the fire, 

and soon the cause was discovered. We proceeded with the work of attaching finishing materials to the walls 

and ceiling inside the machine room while the piping work and equipment installation work had not been completed. 

That was the first cause.

The second cause was the responsibility of the interior finishing materials contractor and construction supervisor 

who installed the finishing materials illegally.

This is because, originally, the finishing work of the machine room should have been done 

with completely non-combustible materials, but in order to save construction costs, 

the construction company used materials made of non-combustible materials on the outside 

but combustible materials on the inside.

As a result, when welding sparks generated by our welder during work flew and stuck to the finishing material, 

the outer material did not burn, but when the iron sparks melted the outer material of the finishing material 

and entered the inside, the inside caught fire and burned out.

As a result, even though our technicians urgently brought in a fire extinguisher and sprayed it, 

the exterior material of the finish blocked the extinguishing powder, and the inside of the finish burned 

and continued to spread, making it impossible to extinguish the fire early.

It was a fire incident caused by an unsatisfactory material used by a machine room finishing construction company, 

and it was an incident caused by the illegal and unscrupulous supervision of public officials 

and construction company managers who tolerated the fire despite knowing that the material could not be used.

Due to this incident, various problems of the Korean construction industry, problems of the firefighters at the time, 

problems of the media, and problems of national public officials were revealed.

However, at the time, I had to report this to the world and sue and report the wrong state administration 

and industry practices, but I could not do it.