True Crime Campfire - Disaster Class: Two Deadly Man-Made Disasters

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Starting point is 00:00:30 Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. Shop with Racketon and you'll get it. What's it? It's the best deal. The highest cash back. The most savings on your shopping. So join Racketon and start getting cash back. Sephora, Unigloat, Expedia, and other stores you love. You can even stack sales on top of cashback. Just start your shopping with Racketon to save money at over 750 stores. Join for free at racketon.ca.com or download the Racketon app. That's Rackettin.com. There's a saying that goes, all regulations are written in blood.

Starting point is 00:01:23 And it's true. If given the opportunity, companies will just cut corners and find loopholes to make their jobs easier and cheaper, skirt some kind of oversight. And when it all goes wrong, when there's blood on their hands, when there's a dozen microphones in their faces, the people in charge always look contrite. And that's when the rules change, because some idiot decided that money was worth more than human life. And that's infuriating, isn't it? The mundanity of that kind of evil? They wanted to save a couple bucks and now people are dead and hurt and they're sorry. Today, we're talking about two cases where hundreds of people lost their lives

Starting point is 00:02:03 because some bigwig at the top didn't like the idea of spending a little more money. This is disaster class, a grab bag of deadly man-made disasters. Case one, Disco Inferno, the Coconut Grove Fire. For this one, we're in Boston, Massachusetts on November 28, 1942, at the Coconut Grove Restaurant and Supper Club. It was more of a nightclub, but technically nightclubs weren't allowed in Boston at the time. But see what we mean about loopholes? Human history is filled with people finding loopholes. Everyone's little sibling's favorite game as a kid was, I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you, right?

Starting point is 00:02:53 Well, actually, my favorite game with my little brother was, hey, look, I broke your nose again. Whatever. We're great friends now, I promise. Coconut Grove was supremely popular during the 1920s, fueled by Prohibition and its seemingly endless access to booze. This access came from being owned by a member of the local mob. After Prohibition ended, people were a bit less keen to be hanging around with shady characters, so patronage dipped a bit in the 1930s. After the owner was gunned down by a rival family, ownership passed to a lawyer named Barnett Walanski. At the dawn of World War II, business picked up again.

Starting point is 00:03:32 In fact, it became the it place for any Boston socialite in 1942. Barnett was a lawyer, but he wasn't super committed to following the law. It would later be found that he was operating without a building permit or a liquor license, so that's good, I guess. The building itself was a bit of a marvel. It was a single story with a basement. The basement had a bar named the Melody Lounge, the kitchen, and some stories. storage areas while the main floor held the dining room, the ballroom, a bandstand, and several

Starting point is 00:04:02 bar rooms where patrons could drink in a quieter setting. The channel, fascinating horror on YouTube, described it as a Warren, and I'd have to agree. There's no direct way out of the building. You'd have to twist and turn your way out, especially if you were in the basement. The main entrance and exit of the building was a single revolving door at the front of the building. Can't imagine that being a bad idea, right? The Coconut Grove's main claim to fame, though, was the retractable roof over the ballroom, where on warm nights patrons could dance under the stars, which really sounds lovely, but the problem is it was made of cloth, and according to one report, may have contained a, quote, highly flammable nitrocellulose compound used to make munitions and celluloid or nitrate

Starting point is 00:04:50 film for early motion pictures. The entire club was decorated with paper palm trees, fake leather upholstery, and cloth wall hangings, all placed close together with very little concern for safety. Like, yeah, yeah, just opened up a new nightclub, yeah, built it out oily rags and matches. Just in retrospect, hindsight's 2020, but like, dude, just everything here is a blaring alarm bell. Like, I don't even think you need hindsight for this one. I think you just need regular sight. Seriously, right. On the evening of November 28, that around 10, 15 p.m. It was estimated that there were a thousand guests inside the Coconut Grove. That evening, a busboy named Stanley Tomashefsky was told to go repair a light bulb in the corner of the

Starting point is 00:05:37 Melody Lounge. The bulb was located at the top of a fake palm tree. Allegedly, the light bulb had been unscrewed by a guest who wanted to mug down with his date with a bit of privacy. Unable to see what he was doing in the dark, Stan let a match to screw in the new light bulb. Seconds later, guests saw flames lick the fronds of the tree and saw several other nearby decorations change color without noticeable flame. Then the palm tree burst into a proper fire, quickly catching nearby decorations on fire with it. Bartenders and other staff rushed over to try and put the fire out with cups of water and seltzer bottles. Some patrons found this site a little amusing, while others immediately sensed the danger and tried to make their way out of the dark basement. The fire moved so fast

Starting point is 00:06:26 though, that some bodies were later found still holding their drinks, sitting at their bar stools, which reminds me so much of Pompeii, right? Like how they all just got frozen in their final moment as the ash covered the town. So creepy. Many found themselves at an

Starting point is 00:06:42 emergency exit, only to find it locked. And why you would lock an emergency exit is just far beyond my understanding. But there would be several exits that people trying to escape would find locked. Patrons redirected toward the revolving door as a fireball exploded forward and up toward the main floor of the building, pushing toxic gas with it. The false roof quickly caught fire, spreading the flames to the walls and exterior.

Starting point is 00:07:09 Meanwhile, a few people were able to exit through the revolving doors, but many more were held up with the crush and held in place as the flames reached them or flat out pulverized in the crowd. Luckily, the Boston Fire Department was on a call about a car fire three blocks away from the Coconut Grove at the time and were able to see the smoke rising from the building. They rushed over and began rescue efforts. Within 10 minutes, the fire chief declared it a four-alarm fire, and within 20, he declared the fifth alarm. For those that don't know, alarm levels designate the severity of the fire and the levels of response needed by the fire department. A five-alarm fire means that the highest level of response, is needed. The Boston Fire Department was confronted with huge flames along with highly toxic gas caused by the cheap furniture in the building. People that were able to exit on their own collapsed

Starting point is 00:08:01 as soon as they made it out. And soon the street was filled with stacked bodies, shoulder high, both living and dead, sometimes blocking exits. They had to set up a temporary morgue nearby to deal with all the bodies. And this is so terrifying, like people would be carried to the morgue, only to be discovered that they were alive and have to be rushed to the hospital. Inside, some guests were able to follow employees to safety. The employees knew the club much better than the guests and were escaping through back corridors and in some cases hiding in refrigerators to be found later. Some emergency exits were blocked by decorations and the employees had managed to open those.

Starting point is 00:08:41 One exit door opened inwardly, so under the press of bodies, it slammed shut, trapping would-be escapies inside. Some employees were able to get through windows. The Army, Navy, and National Guard were called in to help with moving the injured to hospitals. They used taxis, newspaper delivery trucks, milk trucks, basically anything with wheels to get victims to the hospital. One hospital, Boston City Hospital, got 300 patients in one hour, which, fun fact, I guess, exceeded the rate found in London during the Blitz. Wow. Luckily, local hospitals had been stockpiling medical supplies in anticipation of an access

Starting point is 00:09:22 attack on the U.S. East Coast, so they had plenty of supplies. They called in off-duty staff and began work to help. At the end of it all, 492 people died in the Coconut Grove fire with 166 more injured. Among the dead were 64 first responders and one movie star. Wow. That's so sad. As the fire died down, questions began to get asked about how in the hell this happened. It seemed like the Coconut Grove was designed to be a bonfire rather than a nightclub.

Starting point is 00:09:55 Initially, Blame fell on poor busboy Stan. At least from the public's perspective, officials weren't so sure. First of all, he was only 16, which was way too young to be working at a nightclub. Second of all, investigators found that on top of the really poor, highly flammable interior design decision, made, Barnett Wollanski also cut corners everywhere else. He replaced the Fri-on in the AC unit with methyl chloride, which is, you guessed it, highly flammable. Great.

Starting point is 00:10:28 He also allowed unlicensed contractors to do all his electrical work. Oh, my Lord. And, you know, Whitney, you asked about who in the hell locks emergency exits? Yeah. Turned out it was Burnett Wollanski. He didn't like the idea of patrons leaving without paying. So he locked them. Fire investigators also found a couple of doorways bricked over.

Starting point is 00:10:54 Oh my God almighty. Plus, the nightclub was over double its capacity that night. Even if Stan was responsible for the fire, which it was determined he might not have been, he never should have been there in the first place and far more contributed to the fire than some kid lighting a match. The reality was that Stan was just a kid who was trying to bring in money for his sick mom. The public still excoriated him at the time, and he lived with guilt for the rest of his life. Oh, poor kid.

Starting point is 00:11:26 Just a convenient scapegoat for people who couldn't be bothered to find out the real story. And as for Wolenski, the state decided that charging him with 492 counts of manslaughter would be too much for a trial. So they randomly picked 19 victims and charged him with 19 counts. ounce. A jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. And for some bizarre reason, the governor pardoned him after he served three and a half years. Just digest that for a second. Some sources attribute this to a compassionate release because he did die of cancer shortly after he got out, but others say he was buddies with the governor at the time. Ew. Could be both. Who knows? This incident did change building codes.

Starting point is 00:12:12 in Massachusetts and throughout the U.S. though. Now, anytime you see revolving doors, they're flanked by two outwardly opening doors. All exterior exit doors open outwardly. And emergency exits are clearly marked and never locked or blocked during business hours. All because Barnett Moulansky was a dumb, greedy little shit stain. Burn treatment also took huge leaps due to this incident. The first instance of using penicillin on a burn patient was a victim of this fire. They also were able to discover that the best way to treat a burn was to just leave it alone. You see, to prevent infection, they would scrub the burn clean, removing any blisters, dead skin. It's, you know, yuck like that with soap and water.

Starting point is 00:12:55 It was an agonizing procedure and would have to be done with anesthesia to prevent the patient from going into shock. It just sounds like the worst thing in the world. In the treatment of the coconut grove victims with surface burns, they gently cleaned the wound, covered the area with gauze and ointment, and gave the patient's antibiotics. The patients recovered without infections. Doctors also developed a chart used to mark the area and percentage of a burn on a patient's body, and that chart is still in use today.

Starting point is 00:13:25 It really does seem like the Coconut Grove was moments away from disaster at any given time. It took minutes for the entire thing to literally go up in flames, and for nearly 500 people to lose their lives, all because some schmuck didn't care about their safety. Moving on now to Case 2. House of Cards, the Sampoong Department Store Collapse. So for this next one, campers, were in Seoul, South Korea on Thursday, June 29, 1995, and taxi driver Park Monsu is waiting at a stoplight outside of the giant five-story Sampong department store. He heard a mighty crack, and before his eyes, he saw the building.

Starting point is 00:14:08 He would later recall it just folded. as if it was being destroyed by a demolition crew, the way you see on television. It just went in a matter of seconds. Five stories had collapsed into the four-floor basement, just like that. What in the world had happened? Initial suspicions were a North Korean bomb or a gas leak. In reality, it was one of the most deadly, non-deliberate building collapses in modern history, caused by human negligence rather than antipathy.

Starting point is 00:14:39 Sam Pung Department Store was made up of two structures, a pair of baby pink five-story towers connected by an atrium. That June evening was warm and humid. Between 5 and 6 p.m., about 2,000 people were escaping the muggy weather like people the world over knew how, going shopping and using somebody else's air conditioning. The rooftop air conditioners had been roaring most of the day, working hard to cool down the almost 800,000 square foot space while people bustled about the big rosy-colored department store going about their day, unaware of the horrors that would follow. But let's put a pen in that for a second and talk about how we even got there in the first place. Seoul had won the bid to host the 1988 summer Olympics, and that, along with the general

Starting point is 00:15:27 economic success that all of Southeast Asia was enjoying, injected a ton of capital into the city. Suddenly, developers had a lot more money and freedom to play with. One such developer was the Sampoon Group headed by CEO E. June. Initially, the land was zoned for apartment development in 1977, and after 11 years, construction began. Now, E wasn't a stupid man. Apartments are good money, sure, but they're pretty expensive to run, too. You have to deal with tenants. You have to constantly replace expensive appliances. The juice was kind of not worth to squeeze. Plus, with the Olympics bid being awarded to Seoul in 1981, the focus was shifting from development. developing residential space to commercial.

Starting point is 00:16:12 So with one easy flip of a switch, E could pump up the price per square footage of his building. In 1989, the change in business plan was approved, and the construction plans had to make big changes. Sam Pung Development wanted to build a department store. The company that initially won the bid for the construction of the apartment buildings was called Wusung Construction. When they were told to make changes to the set plans, they balked.

Starting point is 00:16:39 The apartments were supposed to be four stories tall with four additional levels, including two levels of underground parking under the buildings. It was built as a flat slab building, which for campers who aren't, architecture students, picture flat slabs of concrete held up by columns of concrete at equal intervals. Like most parking structures are naked flat slabs, okay? Anyway, by the time the change came through, the foundation and the lower floors were complete. So Sampung wanted Wusung to make some major changes on a budget. They wanted to remove support columns through the center and add escalators straight up both of the buildings. They wanted to add rooftop HVAC systems and they wanted to add another floor on top of the fourth floor to include a roller skating rink because it was the 90s and roller skating was cool. Excuse me, roller skating will never not be cool.

Starting point is 00:17:38 Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not wrong. It's fun. But when's the last time you saw a roller rink? Okay. Now, I'm no structural engineer, but if you build the base of a stable house of cards, change your mind, core out the middle, and add a bunch of weight on top, in my very unprofessional opinion, I think you may have some issues. In another strange, strange decision, they didn't add any wire. bracketing or cross beams to their support columns on the fourth floor. So there was no weight distribution. There's a guy on TikTok called Disastrous History who described it best. It's like putting a pancake on a chopstick.

Starting point is 00:18:22 The chopstick is going to punch a hole right through the pancake unless you add something to distribute the pressure. Oosung Construction, which was not run by graduates from Clown College, saw the writing on the wall and said, no, bro, we're good. And, you know, Sam Pung was totally reasonable about it, by which I mean they fired Wusung. But Wusung was cool with it and took their toys and went home. And for the record, later investigations found that the construction on the foundation and lower floors were stable and had nothing to do with the later disaster. If Wusung had completed construction as planned, it's very possible that the building would have remained intact.

Starting point is 00:19:04 Oh, Lord. Well, Sam Pung was in a bit of a bind. Because of the development boom, many construction companies were booked out for the foreseeable future. And in order to keep that local economy booming, foreign construction companies weren't allowed to do work in Korea. But on the bright side, work was done quickly, shoddly, and supervision was lax at best. So they had that going for them. Yay. So, you know, thinking on their feet, Sam Pung ended up starting the construction themselves. No local official rubber-stamped the new plans. They were able to make the changes with zero oversight.

Starting point is 00:19:45 Well, Katie, you can totally trust big corporations to do the right things. I don't know why you're, I mean, we don't need regulation of anything, right? Because the companies, they'll just do the right thing because they're the bestest people in the world. You're right. You are correct. You know, I'd be surprised if the changes weren't made. made in crayon on those, you know, architectural sheets, you know, with those cute backwards letters like little kids use.

Starting point is 00:20:15 Because get this. A number of support columns were removed in order to add the escalators. These support columns were replaced by smaller support columns placed at irregular intervals, which couldn't carry as much weight and didn't distribute the weight of the fifth floor evenly, putting immense strain on the fourth floor. Oh, come on. And unfortunately, for the cool kids of the 90s, the skate rink plan went up at smoke and was replaced with plans for eight traditional Korean restaurants.

Starting point is 00:20:48 Yeah, and because at Korean restaurants, guests sit on the floor, Sampoon Group leadership wanted to include a heated flooring system called an Andol. This added four feet of thickness with hot water pipes running through concrete flooring, which has got to be one of the weirdest unnecessary extravagances I have ever heard of. Like, that's like having a coffee maker in your car. It's just bizarre. Like, would it be nice? Sure, but do you need it?

Starting point is 00:21:16 No. Put a wood floor in there and your butt will warm it up in 10 seconds. She's so stupid. And it must have cost a fortune. It was just unbelievable. It was so heavy. Oh, God, I bet. So restaurants also require a lot.

Starting point is 00:21:32 lot more equipment than a roller rink. Think refrigeration systems, cooktops, stoves, friars, that's a lot of additional weight that the original plan didn't call for. Three HVAC units were installed on the roof weighing a total of 45 tons while empty and double that while full in the summer. Wow. The roof was later found to be a quarter of the strength required to hold the units. A quarter. By the time the department store opened on July 7th, 1990, the store stood out from the gray monolith of the buildings that surrounded it. It was giant and pink. It was initially a huge success, boasting 40,000 shoppers per day.

Starting point is 00:22:39 They were raking in money, hand over fist. They brought in like half a million dollars U.S. every day. It was a standard department store. The top floor was the restaurants. The fourth were household goods, then the men's clothing, women's clothing, first four was miscellaneous goods, foreign brands, and cosmetics. The first floor of the basement was appliances, bookstores, and supermarkets, and then the next two were underground parking along with the employee

Starting point is 00:23:05 cafeteria. Below that was the machine room. For years, the building passed safety inspections. God only knows how, probably a little money changed hands, I suspect. But the structural changes were already putting immense pressure on the building. The degradation of the building was put into overdrive in 1993 when tenants of buildings to the east of the department store complain about the noise from those ginormous AC units. Now, reasonably, the department store agreed to move the units to the west side of the buildings. Unreasonably, instead of shelling out the cash to hire cranes and crews to move the units safely, they put each one of those 15-ton units on wheels and just dragged them clear across the rooftop. Immediately, cracks in the rooftop appeared,

Starting point is 00:23:53 and one of the support columns was driven downward into the building and cracked. I'm sure it'll be fine. I just can't fathom these people. Every morning for the next two years, as the AC kicked on every morning, the cracks grew and grew and grew until the evening of June 29, 1995, almost five years to the day of their opening. The facilities manager had arrived to work that morning to a note from the night security guard reporting strange noises from the roof during the night. A couple hours later, the facilities manager noticed large cracks on one of the support columns in one of the fifth floor restaurants. The column, dubbed column 5E by disaster researchers because it was the first column to fail. Yeah, I don't think you

Starting point is 00:24:42 want to be named. Like, you don't want to be the named column in an investigator's report. No. It had cracks measuring four inches in width, not length, width. With. So that's like your hand width of crack. That's bananas. So in response, the fifth floor was closed to the public. Problem solved. Then around noon, customers started to hear loud creaking noises and felt vibrations in the building. The facilities manager believed that the AC units were the reason for the noises and vibrations, so he had them turned off.

Starting point is 00:25:19 At 4 p.m., a meeting was held between the head manager, the facilities manager, the Samphoon Board, including E. June, and the structural engineer who had built the store. The structural engineer rang the alarm. He told them in no uncertain terms that they should evacuate the store and close for immediate emergency repairs. E. June refused. They had 2,000 souls in the store. They were making way too much money to close. Strangely enough, though, E. June and the rest of the board did leave the building comfortably and safely, without warning customers or staff of any imminent danger. One 19-year-old employee named Yu G. Wan, who worked in the second-floor crystal department, had heard rumors that the fifth floor had completely collapsed and had to be evacuated.

Starting point is 00:26:06 Not true, but you know how the rumor mill is. She said, I asked if all the other floors were okay and just thought it would pass. No one thought it was a big deal. Another second-floor employee, Park Sankyun, who sold children's clothes, said, I heard rumors that the restaurant floor, the fifth floor, had sunk and that they couldn't turn the air conditioning on because the vibrations would run right through the building. I didn't really pay attention to the rumors. These quotes, by the way, are from the book, Collapse when Buildings Fall Down by Philip Wern, which was one of our sources for this case. It's really good. He only dedicated one chapter to this case, and it was just like filled with information. I recommend reading it if you would like more info. At 5.40 p.m., customers and employees heard a loud

Starting point is 00:26:55 crack from the top floor, and the ceiling above them literally shifted. Oh, seven minutes later, customers heard a louder noise from above. At that point, emergency alarm sounded, and the employees began trying to evacuate customers. At 5.52, the entire building shook violently. Park Sang-Hun recalls the immediate panic around her. She said, I just started running with them without thinking, but I didn't get very far before I was hit on the head by a concrete block from the ceiling, and I passed out. Oh, God. The AC units had fallen through the roof into the fifth floor, sending the

Starting point is 00:27:30 fifth floor slamming down to the rest of the building, taking the rest of the floors down with it. Damn. When rescuers arrived, they were hit with some immediate issues. They realized that their best chances of rescuing anyone was searching on the edges of the collapse. Anyone toward the center of the building was most likely crushed. Then, fires had broken out throughout the rubble, most likely caused by the cars parked underground, but they had no way of knowing that at the time. It could have been caused by explosives or an active gas leak. Rescue teams made the decision to douse the flames with water. This had a paradoxical effect.

Starting point is 00:28:07 On one hand, survivors who were trapped would have access to water, but on the other, other survivors would beat their demise under a deluge of water, meant to save them. The U.S. military sent troops for aid and requests for equipment like jackhammer steel cutters and arc lights were being sent to the public. Meanwhile, in the building, Park Sung Hyun came back to consciousness and complete darkness. She was disoriented and took some time to come to grips with her situation. She realized that she was somewhere in the basement, surrounded by rubble and an oppressive heat. She started moving around rubble, trying to shift some to possibly find some daylight,

Starting point is 00:28:47 but she quickly exhausted herself and fell asleep. when she awoke again she heard a familiar voice nearby sobbing. It was one of her co-workers a woman named Hey Chung. When Sung called out, Hey Chung responded screaming for help.

Starting point is 00:29:04 She said she thought that something had impaled her through her side and she was badly injured. Oh my God. Sung Hyun told her to stay calm and to save her energy, but as she said later in an interview, Hay Chung was in so much pain she just couldn't cope. Oh my God.

Starting point is 00:29:20 God bless her heart. When asked how she spent her time in the darkness, Sung Hyun said she slept most of the time. People ask how you can sleep in such a condition, but you can't actually sleep better in a situation like that. By sleeping, you escape. You're able to deny the reality, she clarified. I completely get this.

Starting point is 00:29:40 I slept, woke up, slept, woke up tens of times. I dreamt, too. A Buddhist monk I was close to appeared in one of my dreams and showed me a painting of an apple on rice paper. I thought it was a good omen. In another dream, I saw my cousin at a swimming pool. I asked her what the date was. She told me the date. I thought five days had passed since the collapse. I can't find a specific account of what happened to Seng Hion's friend, but a woman named Haichung is listed on the Sampoong Department Store Memorial.

Starting point is 00:30:14 Ji Huan decided that she was going to do her best to help herself. She felt around in the darkness and was able to work out that she was in the household utilities department. There were knives, scissors, jagged pieces of broken glass. She managed to find a lighter. She said, I flicked it on, but there was nobody there. I was alone. I saw I was injured in a few places and began to feel all over my body. I felt something wet and realized it was blood.

Starting point is 00:30:43 She had a wound on her head and one on her back. She took some of her clothing and used the scissors she found. to make a bandage for herself, so resourceful. Meanwhile, nine people were pulled from the rubble on June 30th, and more were able to be pulled out on July 1st, but two died on the way to the hospital. One rescuer explained the dangers that the survivors were in. I just discovered five people dead in one place.

Starting point is 00:31:09 They were alive when I was there about four hours ago. They were suffocated by toxic smoke. Despite the toxic smoke and fires and the immense amount of death, Hope was still in the air on the 1st of July. Rescue workers had made their way to the third basement floor via an intact stairway, which led to a staff locker room, which was blocked by slabs of concrete. Through the concrete, though, they heard shouts and immediately got to work cutting their way through the slabs. There, they found 24 cleaning staff, all alive, altogether, most of them older and severely dehydrated.

Starting point is 00:31:46 The widest hole the rescuers could manage without risking structural. structural damage was 20 inches in width, but the 24 all managed to squeeze their way through by covering themselves in cooking oil. One survivor, a 53-year-old maintenance man, said that the way they kept their hope alive was by relying on each other. We often held hands and just persuaded each other not to lose hope of being rescued. It's such an inspiring story, just hope and human resilience, isn't it? I mean, I cannot imagine being trapped for two days.

Starting point is 00:32:19 days in a sweltering basement of a collapsed building and in the dark too and still they chose to give each other hope it's so beautiful that's the best of us you know stuff like that yeah that rescue was kind of the limit for the rescue teams though the officials decided that the department store was too dangerous there was one elevator shaft still standing but it started tilting over the last few days 500 relatives of the missing were waiting at the site for news and when they heard of the plans to stop rescue efforts, they were, of course, furious. In fact, a few of them started fighting with the riot police while they were sobbing, begging for the safety officials to keep the search going.

Starting point is 00:33:02 On Sunday, rescuers were able to secure the elevator shaft and the search resumed. That same afternoon, they were able to rescue another store employee, 22-year-old Yi Yun-Yung. A full nine days later, Choi Myeong-sook was rescued, and everyone was sure that he was the last survivor. He'd survived that long because it was monsoon season and he'd been able to drink some rainwater. Rescue efforts were shifted toward recovery efforts.

Starting point is 00:33:30 Despite this, Song Hyun and Ji Wan were still alive in their little air pockets. In addition to the risk of starvation and dehydration, they were now in danger of being crushed by debris being moved around by the recovery efforts. Ji Wan remembered that the ceiling was gradually, sinking and eventually closed off all the space to one side of me. At one point, the ceiling literally came this close to my nose, she said, and she's holding her hand just a couple of inches from her face. Oh, my God. Yeah, reading these two women's account, it just gives you such chills. It's like watching like a horror movie. It's, it's, oh. It is a horror movie. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:34:10 Like, I remember reading about her flicking on the, the lighter. And I was like, no, don't do it. Because there's gas, and then I remember I'm reading an account of something that actually happened. I'm like, okay. Take a breath. She told an interviewer that she could hear rescue workers. I would call out, bang anything I could get my hands on. At times, you could hear everything. It felt like you could reach out and touch them.

Starting point is 00:34:35 It seemed so close. But there was no response. You start to lose hope that you will be rescued. Your thoughts just oscillate violently. I won't die. Could I die? Yes, I probably will die. Oh, man.

Starting point is 00:34:50 All hope was not lost, though. On the 13th day, sunlight suddenly opened up over her. She said, suddenly there was a hole above my feet, and I heard a voice. Is there anyone down there? Is anybody alive? I answered, but they didn't seem to hear me. I didn't think I was that weak, but they couldn't hear my voice. They asked me to move my feet, so I moved my feet.

Starting point is 00:35:15 I had to let them know I was alive. What if I thought I was dead and passed by? I moved my feet a lot. And that part, honestly, did bring a tear to my eye, reading the account, is like, I moved my feet a lot. It's like, ugh. Ji Huan was pulled out and rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, Sung Hyun was trapped in a space the size of a coffin. Oh, God.

Starting point is 00:35:39 The ceiling was coming closer and closer to her. She was trapped on her stomach with such little space that she could. couldn't roll over. I seriously think I would lose my mind. Like, I cannot even imagine. I can only hope that maybe they were so delirious from like hunger and thirst that maybe it made it a little bit unreal and floaty, but it just sounds like absolute hell. Mm-hmm.

Starting point is 00:36:00 Yeah, it's horrific. A full four days later, she heard voices again, and she managed to grab a metal pipe and bang on the concrete around her while yelling. She couldn't hear anything, but the sound of a forklift and engine started nearby. She kept yelling, hoping to be heard over the deafening noise as it seemed to roll over her. The engine stopped, and she heard the forklift operator say, There's someone down there. And then the sound of digging. Finally, miraculously, she saw the face of her angel above her. She said, I saw his face and my only thought was that I was going to

Starting point is 00:36:42 live. I could finally leave this darkness. After 17 days, Sung Hyun would be the last survivor pulled from the rubble. She and Ji Wan were able to make full physical recoveries, although the mental impact of their experience would leave lasting scars. All in all, 502 people died in the collapse and aftermath. Over 900 people were injured, with six still missing. It is the largest peacetime disaster in Korean history. Investigators set out to understand exactly what had happened. They interviewed Sam Pung's chairman, I June, and his son, E. Han Song, who happened to be the CEO, Nepo baby.

Starting point is 00:37:26 The investigation quickly became a criminal investigation. They hired a group of structural engineers to look at the plans for the building to understand exactly what went wrong and to perform a forensic engineering analysis. analysis of the collapse. The engineer in charge was Professor Chung Lon from Don Cook University. Upon looking at the photos of the intact building, actually going to the disaster site and looking at the rubble and looking at the plans, Chung and his team were horrified. The building had no crossbeams or steel framework, which basically meant there was no redundancy if the columns failed. Remember the chopstick pancake analogy earlier on the episode? Yeah, no weight transfer.

Starting point is 00:38:09 Further, the fifth floor, which is what made that first construction company Bach, put huge strains on the fourth floor. And then they took a look at the AC units. Turns out those units were designed to be placed on the ground, which explains why they were so heavy and vibrated the whole damn building when turned on. So why were they on the roof? Well, the board was concerned that the noise of the units on the ground would cause noise complaints from the nearby suburbs. So instead of spending more for quieter units or getting some noise barriers for the units on the ground, they decided to put 90 tons of AC unit on a roof that was not designed to withstand one quarter of that weight. And then they got complaints anyway and had to move the units and cut corners doing that too.

Starting point is 00:38:58 Yep, and that is ultimately what sped the collapse, according to Professor Chung's report. He and his colleagues concluded that there was an, quote, illegal alteration of, the architectural design and usage purpose of the building, driven by human ignorance, negligence, and greed. Damn, share how you feel, Dr. Chow, right? Tell them, get him. They placed blame on the planning authorities and on Sampung management. Moving the AC units, the way they did, certainly sped up the collapse, but it probably would have happened anyway. Since the building opened, cracks and leaks had appeared throughout the building, and management did nothing to address the underlying cause. It's like this place was put together with like popsicle,

Starting point is 00:39:37 sticks and snot. I mean, it's just the worst. How anybody thought this was okay is beyond me. And this was not the first time that the devil may care attitude toward construction safety had caused death and destruction in Korea, meaning they should have freaking known better. Just a year earlier, in 1994, Song Su Bridge and Seoul collapsed during rush hour, killing 32 people. In 1995, a subway construction site gas explosion and Tygoo killed 101. It didn't take long for people to connect the dots that all of these projects had taken place after the development boom in the 80s. One newspaper headline read Endless Disaster, Disaster, Disaster. It wasn't hard to figure out why. Construction companies were

Starting point is 00:40:23 stretched thin, so corners were being cut. The government officials cared more about the money being made than the safety of the citizens. The government started doing some inspections, and the results were chilling. They found that, quote, 14% of all high-rise structures in the country were unsafe and needed rebuilding. 84% needed repair work, and only 2% of such buildings met government standards. What a horrific, horrific revelation. As a Korean structural engineer, I feel embarrassed, said one of the engineers working on the Sam Pung investigation. At least when it came to Sam Pung, though, consequences would be brought in no small part due to public outcry. That's what it fricking takes.

Starting point is 00:41:08 We have to raise hell. It took public demonstrations and outcry from families of the victims. One father, Zhang Guangjin, who lost three daughters in the collapse, said, people should do the best at their jobs. This accident happened because they didn't. Three daughters. Unbelievable. E. June was found guilty of criminal negligence and negligent homicide.

Starting point is 00:41:32 and sentenced to ten and a half years in prison. His son, E. Hong's son, was found guilty of corruption and accidental homicide and served seven years. Unfortunately, June's sentence was reduced to seven years upon appeal. Doesn't feel long enough, does it? Shortly after his release, E. June was hospitalized for complications related to diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney disease, and passed away in 2003. He was 81. The last report of Hongsan we could find reported that he was doing work as an evangelist in Mongolia in the early 2000s, so God knows what he's up to now.

Starting point is 00:42:09 He's probably starting a cult. He'd be in his mid-70s now, so hopefully he stayed the hell away from the construction business, at least. The Sam Pung Department Store Memorial is located in a park. It's a 12-foot-tall marble statue carved with the names of each of the victims. Family members still go to clean and care for it. initially the site of the collapse was going to be used for the memorial but it was decided that the land was too valuable to give up that hits you wrong doesn't it that it came down to money again there's luxury apartments standing there now isn't that nice the scariest thing about these stories to me is that there's no real ill-will involved no targeted rage no revenge just humdrum banal greed but it's like what mr Mr. Rogers said, right? When we see scary things in the news, look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. Each and every one of those first responders, doctors,

Starting point is 00:43:11 and nurses in the story are absolute heroes. They truly deserve the world. Always look for the helpers, campers. They're always there. Amen to that. So that was a pair of infuriating in wild ones, right? Campers. You know, we'll have another one for you next week. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe until we get together again around the true crime campfire. And if you haven't booked your spot yet on the Crime Wave True Crime Cruise from November 3rd through November 7th, from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas, get on it, y'all. Join Katie and me, plus last podcast on the left, scared to death, and sinisterhood for a rock and good time at sea. You can pay all at once or set up a payment plan, but you got to have a fan code to book a ticket.

Starting point is 00:43:57 so go to crimewave at sea.com slash campfire and take it from there. And as always, we want to send a grateful shout out to a few of our lovely patrons. Thank you so much to Selena, Caroline, Jessica, and Jeremy. We appreciate y'all to the moon and back. And if you're not yet a patron, you're missing out. Patrons of our show get every episode, ad-free, at least a day early, sometimes even two, plus tons of extra content, like patrons-only episodes and hilarious post-show discussions. And once you hit the $5 and up categories, you get in more cool stuff.

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True Crime Campfire - Disaster Class: Two Deadly Man-Made Disasters

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