**The Daea Hotel fire** was a fire that broke out at about 8 a.m. on 14 January 1984 in the fourth-floor health club of the Daea Hotel in Buzeon-dong, [[Busanjin-gu]], [[Busan Metropolitan City]]. The cause was the careless handling of a kerosene heater.[^1]

## Scale of damage

-   Casualties: 38 dead and 68 injured (including 5 foreign nationals dead and 6 injured)
-   Property damage: 300 million won

## Overview of the incident

A health club employee, Kim (30 years old at the time, born 1955), entered the health club from the sauna, raised the wick of a kerosene heater installed there to its maximum, and lit it. He then returned to the sauna and checked the heater's burning condition for about 20 minutes. While he was refilling the heater from a plastic kerosene tank at its inlet, kerosene from the hose spilled onto the heater and ignited, causing the fire.[^2]

## Response

The fire, first ignited on the fourth-floor health club at about 7:50 a.m. on 14 January 1984, spread to other floors of the hotel by about 8 a.m., and smoke spread widely to the outside of the hotel. A fire report was received by 119, and firefighting units arrived at 8:17 a.m. Afterward, firefighting operations began, and the initial suppression was completed at 9 a.m.

Afterward, rescue teams, aerial ladder trucks, and drop mats were prepared, and rescue operations began. Seven helicopters, including an [[Republic of Korea Air Force|Air Force]] [[helicopter]], were deployed to rescue guests trapped on the [[rooftop]], but five people died during the rescue operations.

Large-scale rescue and search operations did not begin until 11:30 a.m. The day before the fire, 13 January, popular entertainers were performing, so young people visited the hotel in large numbers. Many of them, having drunk heavily and being overtired, could not easily wake up in the [[morning]] and did not hear the fire alarm, which increased the number of casualties.

In addition, the fire burned about 460 pyeong of the hotel building, which covered roughly 2,200 pyeong in total, and furniture and fixtures such as chairs, wardrobes, and [[television]]s were completely burned, causing material losses of 300 million won.[^2]

## After the incident

The site where the Daea Hotel stood, where the fire occurred, appears to have been transformed into the I'ON City Building near [[Seomyeon Station]].

## Footnotes

[^1]: [Busan Daea Hotel Fire](http://nema.go.kr/introduction/object/s_history/view_content.jsp?cNo=1)
[^2]: [“Busan Daea Hotel Fire”](https://web.archive.org/web/20090616134646/http://contents.archives.go.kr/next/content/listSubjectDescription.do#). Preserved on 16 June 2009 (preserved document deleted; new addition needed) from the [original document](http://contents.archives.go.kr/next/content/listSubjectDescription.do;jsessionid=49XGJvPF3QqZYBcJtM1vtpNM7kF5vDjcG7SJKxL36d8hrJpvTFLy!492208640?id=006952&pageFlag=#). Confirmed on 18 November 2008.