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[Anchor Lead]

Architects specializing in tall buildings say that the Jecheon fire was a manmade disaster caused by poor management. The smoke ventilator was out of order and the elevator acted as a passageway for toxic gas.

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Less than five minutes after the fire began, the entire building was engulfed in flames. The flames spread in no time along the walls of the building. Experts say that the fire control equipment inside the building was completely out of order. The sprinklers were broken, while the smoke ventilation equipment, which was supposed to remove toxic gases, failed to turn on, resulting in scores of deaths. This is the reason most of the victims died from suffocation.

[Soundbite] Ahn Hyung-joon(Council on Tall Building & Urban Habitat Korea) : "The smoke ventilation equipment was not working properly and failed to remove toxic gases from the building. Smoke ventilators that fail to do their job are of no use."

The death toll was also high because the victims could not find emergency exits. The emergency exit door on the second floor, where 20 people died, was blocked by a storeroom, making the exit completely useless. Emergency exits on the sixth, seventh and eighth floors, where the remaining victims were found, were also difficult to find.

[Soundbite] Ahn Hyung-joon(Council on Tall Building & Urban Habitat Korea) : "I thought this storeroom was not supposed to be here at first. But when I saw the blueprint yesterday, I found that they obtained a permit to create a storeroom right in front of the emergency exit. Construction permits must not be issued when emergency exits are difficult to access."

Experts say that the Jecheon fire was a completely manmade disaster caused by irresponsible management.