The catastrophic subway fire in Daegu, South Korea, on Tuesday was a nightmare that people around the world could identify with. All it took was one man with a history of mental illness to equip himself with a milk carton filled with gasoline and a cigarette lighter. Such simple ingredients were all that were needed to set a subway train on fire and turn a subway station into an inferno that killed at least 125 people, injured more than 140 and left more than 300 people listed as missing.
This was no terrorist attack nor the work of a fanatical religious or political group. The suspect, a 57-year-old man left partially paralyzed by a stroke was unemployed and suicidal.
This country -- in the midst of a severe recession -- has seen a rise in the number of reports of unemployed and desperate parents taking the lives of their children before killing themselves. There have also been a record-breaking number of individuals diagnosed with either depression or other stressed-related psychological illnesses. Given the country's lack of adequate social services and scarcity of psychiatrists, it is not hard to imagine the same kind of desperation driving people off the deep end here.
People in Taiwan should also take heed of the tragic combination of human error -- and lack of adequate safety standards -- that were a major contributor to the rising casualty toll in Daegu.
Survivors, the families of victims and many others are asking tough questions about how the authorities responded to the fire and why the fire was so intense. There was no sprinkler system in the subway station. The trains not only lack emergency exits, they are made from materials known to emit toxic fumes when burned. A power shutoff also turned off the emergency lights and closed nearly every door on the two trains. Questions have also been raised about the ability of both the subway drivers and station staff to handle emergency situations.
Both the MRT authorities in Taipei and the Taiwan Railroad Company immediately took steps on Tuesday to assure the public about the safety their systems. But the question on everyone's mind is whether such assurances can be trusted."
After all, Tuesday was not the first time that the Daegu subway system experienced a catastrophic fire. In 1995 construction workers inadvertently cut open gas pipes while building the subway, causing a gas explosion and a fire that killed 103 people and injured 189 others. The South Korean government initiated a public-safety campaign aimed at averting a similar tragedy. Given the scale of Tuesday's fire, obviously many safety factors were not taken into consideration or were ignored.
Several media reports have noted that South Korea has one of the worst traffic and industrial safety records of any economy in its league. But the people of Taiwan should not feel complacent. Think of all the promises uttered by government officials after each disaster here -- whether man-made or act of nature. Yet both construction and safety codes are frequently flouted with impunity and fire departments and emergency-rescue services remain -- on the whole -- poorly equipped and poorly trained.
The threat of terrorism was driven home by the Sept. 11 attacks in the US and last October's bombings on Bali. But the potential for a disaster such as Daegu's is just as real and immediate, in this country and many others around the world. No one should feel complacent that such a tragedy could not occur here. The public should demand the government fully enforce the safety codes already on the books and push for new legislation to close any loopholes that might exist. Lives depend upon it.
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