Analysis of Victims of the Fire that Broke Out at a Beer Bar in Inchon.
- Author:
Jung Tae CHOI
1
;
Moo Eob AHN
;
Hee Cheol AHN
;
Young Mi CHOI
;
Jae Bong CHUNG
;
Jung Yeol SEO
;
Ki Cheol YOU
;
Sam Woo LEE
;
Suk Hyun PARK
;
Jun Hwi CHO
;
Seong Whan KIM
;
Ah Jin KIM
;
Keun Jeong SONG
Author Information
1. Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Korea. emdace@ppp.kornet.net
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Fire;
Disaster;
Triage;
Inhalation;
CO poisoning
- MeSH:
Beer*;
Burns;
Cause of Death;
Disasters;
Fires*;
Humans;
Hypoxia, Brain;
Incheon*;
Inhalation;
Medical Records;
Poisoning;
Primary Health Care;
Transportation;
Triage
- From:Journal of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine
2001;12(4):511-517
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
PURPOSE: This study was conducted to develop field triage, transportation, distribution, and prehospital care at a fire disaster by analyzing the victims of the fire that broke out at a bar in Incheon. METHOD: We analyzed the cases of the victims of a fire in Incheon in Oct. 1999. We determined the primary care hospital, the arrival time, the burn size, the outcome, and the injury type from the medical records, the concerned organ records, and interviews with concerned persons. RESULT: The total number of victims was 137: 56 prehospital deaths, 1 hospital death, and 80 survivals. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the burn size and the severity was -0.175. There were 121 (89.6%) cases of inhalation injury, 59 (43.7%) cases of flame burns, 66 (48.9%) cases of hypoxic brain damage, and 16 (11.9%) cases involving other types of injury. CONCLUSION: The causes of death of the fire victims were inhalation injury and hypoxic brain damage due to CO poisoning and other toxic inhalants. We propose the use of a simple triage and rapid treatment (START) system and a reassessment the delayed category in fire disasters.
