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A tragic subway fire in Taegu, South Korea, was set by a deranged man
on Tuesday, 18 Feb, 2003. The man
threw a milk carton of flamable liquid into one car, and set it afire.
The flames engulfed the whole train, and another that pulled into the
station at the time, about 10:00 Korean time, 9 hours earlier than
GMT. More than 130 people were
killed and 99 were missing following the arson attack.
The mayor of the southeastern city of Taegu
said a 56-year-old male with a history of mental illness was
suspected of starting the blaze at the end
of the morning rush hour. Many struggled in vain to escape the
inferno that reduced the trains to metal
skeletons and sent black, acrid smoke belching into the sky for
hours after the fire started.
"My daughter called me twice at 9.57 a.m. crying 'mother there's
smoke everywhere, but the door won't open!" said a woman at a makeshift
crisis centre outside Taegu's Joongangro Station.
"Everything is gone," said Sung Bo-hun, who was inside the subway
until 7:40 pm (1040 GMT). "You can't recognise the people
inside. It is all black and grey."
The prediction specified standard analysis of a 12 hour period
from 09:45 Korean time (00:45 to 12:45 GMT) Feb 18 2003.
This included a few minutes before the fire was set, and a longish
aftermath period for the news to spread around the world.
Our Korean egg was not running, but the nearby eggs in Japan and
Vladivostok were examined to explore the possibility they might react
more strongly.
The formal analysis period shows a sharp rise beginning at the time of
the fire, followed by substantial oscillations. The terminal Chisquare
is 43390 on 42300 df, for a p-value of 0.259. The nearby eggs show no
early trend, but a strong departure beginning a few hours after the
attack.
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