Individual Identification of Sealand Fire Accident.

Lee, Dong Joo; Lee, Han Young; Lee, Won Tae

Original article

Korean Journal of Legal Medicine 1999;23(2):82-86.
Published online October 31, 1999.

Individual Identification of Sealand Fire Accident.

Dong Joo Lee, Han Young Lee, Won Tae Lee

Department of forensic medicine, National Institute of Scientific Investigation, Korea.

Abstract

Twenty-three persons including twenty kindergarten children were died when a pre-dawn fire engulfed their seaside youth training camp in Hwasong on June 30, 1999. Most of children aged six, were caught up in flames while sleeping. The identification process was done in an assembly-line fashion in which the remains were processed through pre-arranged work stations, including overall body photograph, inventory of associated remains and personal effects, dental examination (radiograph and charting), full-body radiographs and autopsy when indicated. All 23 victims were identified by the examination made on usual lines. This success was mainly due to having name list of the victims and sufficiently available ante-mortem data from next of kin. This paper would provide identification process and experience of National Institute of Scientific Investigation in mass disaster of fire accident.

Key Words: fire accident, children, identification process, mass disaster