Overview
- The fire broke out around 5:30 a.m. Monday in a five-storey mixed-use building in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, after a second-floor resident tried to kill a cockroach with a lighter and aerosol spray.
- A woman in her 30s on the fifth floor passed her two-month-old baby to neighbors in an adjacent building less than a meter away, but she fell while trying to follow and later died at Ajou University Hospital.
- Her husband reached the neighboring building safely, and eight other residents were treated for smoke inhalation; firefighters extinguished the blaze in about 40 minutes.
- Police say they are seeking an arrest warrant for the second-floor resident and plan to pursue charges including accidental arson and causing death by negligence.
- Authorities report the suspect said she learned the method online and had used it before, and investigators are reviewing why smoke quickly filled the stairwell and blocked evacuation routes before handing the case to prosecutors.