TRANSCRIPTS OF FIREFIGHTER CALLS

[Anchor Lead]

Transcripts of radio communication among the firefighters have been released, following citizens' phone call transcripts during the Itaewon disaster. The radio calls were desperate, asking for police officers to control the crowd.

[Pkg]

Starting at 10:18 p.m. on the night of the disaster, fire fighters made four requests for police support. The urgency was evident in the radio communication made among fire fighters. At 10:29 p.m., a Yongsan Fire Station command team leader instructed firefighters to quickly ask the police to control the traffic and crowd around the Hamilton Hotel. Then at 10:55 p.m. firefighters again requested for more police officers since the crowd was so uncontrollable that entry was impossible. Five minutes later it was radioed that some 30 people were unconscious, indicating the gravity of the casualty situation. The Yongsang Fire Station captain started radioing for more police officers at 11:09 p.m., demanding that a large number of officers be sent to behind the hotel. He again pressed for more police support 14 minutes later, telling them to call the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and ask them to send riot police immediately. There were 11 such calls from the captain in an hour from 11 p.m. The riot police reportedly arrived at the scene at around 11:40 p.m., some 17 minutes after the captain's request. The superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters appeared on the transcript for the first time at 11:48 p.m. to issue level three response measures. An hour and a half had passed since the first casualty was reported. The radio communication transcripts contained several requests for rescue workers in addition to police officers. At 10:42 p.m., there was an urgent request for more ambulances, so desperate that the caller couldn't even complete the sentence. Radio calls at around 11 p.m. reported that citizens were doing CPR because there weren't enough emergency responders. There were calls for more firefighters to be sent behind the hotel, saying they couldn't even count how many people needed CPR. There were also calls asking where to take a person in cardiac arrest and which hospitals were available. Responders were desperately looking for hospitals to take the casualties.