EMERGENCY ROOM FIRE KILLS AT LEAST 37 PEOPLE, INJURES NEARLY 130

A fire spread flames and smoke through a South Korean hospital Friday morning, killing at least 37 people, mainly from suffocation, and injuring nearly 130 others in one of the country’s deadliest blazes in years. The dead included three hospital staff and several people in an intensive-care unit for respiratory illnesses. The fire started in Sejong Hospital’s emergency room and had engulfed the first floor when firefighters arrived. They approached the second floor through the windows to rescue trapped patients, said Choi Man-wu, a fire official in the southeastern city of Miryang.