J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2001 Dec;12(4):511-517.

Analysis of Victims of the Fire that Broke Out at a Beer Bar in Inchon

• Choi JT
• Ahn ME
• Ahn HC
• Choi YM
• Chung JB
• Seo JY
• You KC
• Lee SW
• Park SH
• Cho JH
• Kim SW
• Kim AJ
• Song KJ

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.

Keyword

Fire; Disaster; Triage; Inhalation; CO poisoning

MeSH Terms

Beer*
Burns
Cause of Death
Disasters
Fires*
Humans
Hypoxia, Brain
Incheon*
Inhalation
Medical Records
Poisoning
Primary Health Care
Transportation
Triage