SaraDevil: The Interests of Sara Davila online Artist

The week past was definately allot more excitment than usual for us in Korea.
The train fire was really something entirly unexpected and an eyeopener at the
same time.

So, for those of you who may not be hearing anymore about a fire on the other
side of the world here is the two minute or so report.

The arsonist was a 56 year old man, who is reported as being a retired cab
driver. He had a history of mental problems and had talked about setting fired
to a hosptial which had performed surgery on him. He felt they had not done a
good job. One morning he woke up and decided that he wanted to die. Rather than
going out alone, he decided to die surrounded by people and found himself one
Tuesday morning with a box of what appears to have been paint thinner or
gasoline, a lighter, and a crowded subway. He rode the train, and exited the
doors, turned and lit the box on fire and tossed it into the car he had just
left, while several people rushed to try and stop him. I watched this on video
which was broadcast on one of the Korean news stations. They have a fairly
cleary view of the man starting the fire from one of the security cameras in
the subway station.

It took about 10 seconds for the fire to get going. About 7 minutes after the
fire started a second train was allowed into the station. Apparently the doors
opened, closed, and remained closed with a number of people trapped on board.
Most of the bodies that have been found where on the second train. The
conductor for the train apparently talked for quite a bit with other rail
officials trying to decided what to do. He believed that the doors were set to
manually open so people could evaucate. He believed that the train had been
evacuated when he left with the master key in his pocket. The only way to open
the doors on the train is with the master key, and once it has been pulled the
doors are shut.

So far the number of dead is still around 135 with 300 people still reported as
missing, a number believed to be greatly heightened by duplicate reports having
been filed. They have started to DNA process bodies that were burnt beyond
recognition. I watched yesterday, on one of the news stations, as a number of
grieving families watched bodies being put onto a conveyor belt and sent into
machines for processing. I cannot imagine how it must feel to be in one of
those families.

The president of Korea, Roh, visited the site on Friday. He was confronted by a
number of mothers, one asking where she could find the body of her child. That
particular statment has been quoted everywhere but it is quite effective for
pointing out just how much damage was done to those who did not make it out in
time.

The underground walk system for the most part seems to be intact, as I was down
for a while this weeekend on a trip to the market to buy pants. The subway
system is the third level down on the walkway system. Most stations have
escolators that go up from the subway level, but there are few elevators for
handicaped people. So someone coming from the subway would have had to go up
three flights of stairs to reach the street. It's quite a climb from the bottom
up. The Daegu subway is now running again, but finding that interest in riding
is down.

In Seoul a test was conducted to see how long it would take to put out a fire
or to evaucate a train if something should happen there. During the test they
found that it took 2 minutes to get the doors open, and 3 minutes to find and
use a fire extinguisher. Of those surveyed only 3 people said they knew how to
operate a fire extingusher. 2 were teachers, and one a nurse, trained to use
extingushers at their jobs. Needless to say Seoul is a bit worried about the
saftey of it's subway. The Daegu fire was spreading with 10 seconds, and within
53 seconds passangers would have been overcome by the smoke and fumes.

At the latest several people have been arrested, and well, scapegoats are being
saught, which was inevitable after something like this. I dont' know if I'm
unwilling to take the subway, but I never had much reason to use them in the
past as most of the places I am going are more accessable by bus or cab. The
subway is out of the way from where I live. Of course the accident has me
reconsidering the subway as a form of transportation for a little while,
anyway.

As for me I had a very nice weekend visit with Sam which included a quick trip
to the market to buy fabric to make a very nice pair of black pants with a
pin-stripe that has just a little shimmer making me very happy. I have also cut
but not finished two other pairs of pants, and will be making at least 2 new
jackets for the summer session when I want to be dressed more cooly to deal
with the heat.

Spring has sort of started as we have days that are comfortable in the 50's and
then days that are still cold. This weekend was a bit damp with scattered
moisture that was almost but not quite unexactly like rain everywhere while
walking about which resulted in much wetting of heads. I rode with Sam to the
station for his bus out on Sunday afternoon. It was a very long ride around
Daegu, which made me remember just how big Daegu is. I ended up a bit queasy
and jostled, but we were none the worse for wear upon arriaving at the station.
Alas Sam didn't make it to Teajun in time to catch his second bus, but
hopefully although perhaps a bit sleep deprived he is okay teaching today.

More later,

Sara