A panicked act turned into tragedy in the South Korean city of Osan, where a twenty-year-old woman set fire to her apartment in an attempt to kill a cockroach. Using flammable spray and a lighter, the young woman created a real improvised flamethrower, starting a fire that destroyed the apartment building and caused the death of a neighbor.
According to the authorities, the woman admitted that she had already used the same “artisanal” method in the past, believing it to be effective for getting rid of insects without ever realizing its danger. This time, however, the flames spread quickly, turning an impulsive reaction into a disaster.
The fire caused one death and several injuries
The blaze would have in fact hit some flammable objects in his apartment, sparking an uncontrollable fire. The flames quickly spread to the entire apartment building, which was home to dozens of families. The building, consisting of a commercial and four residential floors, was completely devastated before firefighters managed to put out the fire.
As mentioned, in the chaos of the fire a Chinese woman in her thirties, who lived with her husband and a newborn baby, lost her life trying to escape the smoke. After having entrusted the child to a neighbor through the window, the woman tried to save herself by lowering herself towards an adjacent building, but fell into the void. The husband managed to survive, while eight people were poisoned by the smoke.
The legal consequences and investigations
Osan police have announced that they will seek an arrest warrant against the woman, accused of negligent fire and negligent homicide. Investigators are reconstructing the exact dynamics of the fire and assessing the extent of the damage, which amounts to several hundred thousand euros.
An impulsive gesture, born from a banal situation and fueled by the atavistic fear of insects which lead to irrational behavior, therefore ended up turning into a tragedy that could have easily been avoided. All for a poor cockroach which, although it is one of the animals that arouse the most disgust and panic in humans, is absolutely harmless to us.
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