Bridge Of Writing (Domination #1) - DeYtH Banger (story read aloud .txt) 📗

or injured described faulty emergency signals, poor communications and misjudgments on the part of subway workers with little or no training in how to cope with such a situation.

"Some of the doors were open and some were closed on the second train," the manager of an emergency fire crew, Chun Pak Chung, said as he headed into the depths of the station. "The control room turned off the power to stop the flames."

Investigators were also questioning the engineer on the second of the two trains, who was reported to have fled with the master key to the subway cars' doors, which were shut tight with screaming passengers trapped inside. It was on the second train that most of the victims died after the heat, flames and smoke engulfed them with no means of escape.

The chief investigator, Cho Doo Won, said the engineer of that train had told the police that he directed passengers three times over the public address system to leave the train, and then fled himself with the master key in his coat pocket.

But other fire and subway officials said the doors of three of the train's six cars had already been shut by the decision of controllers to turn off electrical power, out of fear that electricity surging through the train would intensify the flames.

The overriding question, though, was why the train entered the station at all, since it had stopped for several minutes a few hundred yards away as flames and smoke spread through the first train. The police say the fire was started by a deranged man who ignited a plastic container of paint thinner with a cigarette lighter.

Investigators listened to an audiotape of a conversation between the engineer of the second train and controllers in which, the officials recounted, he said he was stopped in the tunnel and asked when or whether he should move his train into the station. He was eventually told to keep proceed and then let out all his passengers.

"They thought at first it was a small incident," Mr. Chun said. "When he pulled in the station, he opened the doors and the smoke was too heavy. He closed the doors again."

President-elect Roh Moo Hyun visited the scene on Thursday, promising a thorough investigation after meeting with grief-stricken friends and relatives of victims. He said he felt "shame and strong responsibility" that people entrusted with the public's safety would have had "such a poor sense of safety awareness."

Investigators said that equipment was as much responsible as human error. As the flames from the first train spread to the second, the engineer tried to reopen the doors. The doors worked on three cars before the power was cut, officials said.

The root cause for the blaze's spreading so quickly appeared to be the insulation between the layers of aluminum that form the shell of the cars, as well as vinyl and plastic materials in seat cushions and strap handles, and heavy plastic matting on the floors.

The fast-burning flames, which were estimated to have pushed temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, leaped from the first to the second train and down the cars of each train, twisting aluminum, turning strap handles and floor covering to wax, and burning bodies so badly that officials fear identification of most victims will not be possible.

Despite the horrific damage done by the flames, officials said, most victims were felled by the toxic fumes and smoke created by the burning vinyl and plastic seat cushions.

"When things reach a certain heat, they burn," a safety inspector, Chung Hee Gwon, said. "The basic frames are metal, but the support material is plastic."

Jung Chan Kyo, a civil engineer for the subway system, said the cars were built 10 years ago with material that is not used in later models. "Because the cars were so old, that's why they caught fire," he said. "There's no safety standard for vinyl material. New cars have cushions, but they are not made of vinyl."

As for how the flames moved so quickly through every car on both trains, he said that "it got so hot, the next car catches on fire" even though metal itself might not have been burning.

Mr. Chun said the disaster had taught subway engineers lessons in how to prevent a recurrence. "You should put in materials that are not flammable," he said. "The vinyl, the polyester in the advertisements were all responsible. We will be taking many more precautions."

 

S. Korean Man Gets Life for Fatal Subway Fire

Beijing Time

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

A man charged with starting a subway fire in South Korea that killed 198 people was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday.

Kim Dae-han, 56, was accused of starting the Feb. 18 blaze by igniting a carton filled with gasoline inside a subway train in Daegu, South Korea's third-largest city.

The Daegu District Court convicted him Wednesday of arson and homicide.

Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty, but the court gave Kim a life sentence, saying he was repentant and appeared to have been mentally unstable when he committed the crime.

The fire engulfed one six-car train, then spread to another that pulled into the station a few minutes later, killing at least 198 people and injuring 147 others.

About 30 relatives of the victims were at the court hearing and angrily protested the verdict, calling it too lenient, said South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

The court also gave jail terms of four and five years to two drivers of the trains, and three-year terms for two subway officials, on negligent manslaughter charges for failing to evacuate passengers. Three other subway officials received suspended jail terms on same charges.

Both prosecutors and the accused can appeal the verdicts within a week.

 

Monique C. LEE

 

 

 

Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: The victim, a landlord, had eviction papers served on Monique Lee two days earlier
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: October 17, 2010
Date of arrest: December 30, 2010
Date of birth: 1983
Victim profile: Karen Jenkins, 48 (her landlord)
Method of murder: Strangulation with the cord of a vacuum cleaner
Location: Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska, USA
Status: Sentenced to life in prison on November 13, 2012. Died in prison on January 18, 2013

 

Landlord's killer dies in prison

By Todd Cooper - Omaha.com

January 19, 2013

The strange, sordid and, at times, miserable life of Monique Lee has ended.

Lee — the 29-year-old serving a life sentence for strangling her landlord, Omaha businesswoman Karen Jenkins — died at the Nebraska women’s prison in York. The cause of death was not known but Lee reportedly had been housed in a medical unit for an illness in recent days.

Corrections officials had not released reports of her death; a corrections web site listed her date of death as Friday.

Lee’s death — just two months after she was sent York to serve her life sentence — brings an end to what her attorney called one of the more “strange, odd, unusual” cases he has handled.

Lee had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the October 2010 death of Jenkins, a well-traveled businesswoman and college instructor who had just earned her doctorate degree.

Lee was bipolar and had suffered from schizophrenia since childhood.

Her brother and sister testified that she had molested her brother when they both were children. Also as a child, she tried to poison her mother by soaking her food in WD-40.

She told others that she killed Jenkins, 48, because a man named “Black” threatened to take away her children if she didn’t.

Prosecutors believed her real motive was rooted in the fact that Jenkins had served her with eviction papers in the days before.

The slaying further exhibited Lee’s bizarre behavior. Lee and her brother, Gary Lee, lured Jenkins to one of Jenkins’ vacant apartments on the pretense that Gary Lee wanted to rent the apartment.

The brother and sister then strangled Jenkins. Monique used Super Glue to seal her nostrils and mouth shut.

They hid Jenkins’ body — apparently moving from place to place — before it was discovered more than week later under an abandoned house across the street from Lee’s apartment at 40th and Ames Avenue.

A jury rejected Lee’s insanity defense. Under Nebraska law, the defense must prove that a defendant suffers from mental illness that makes her incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.

Douglas County Public Defender Tom Riley said there was no doubt that Lee was mentally ill.

“She had longstanding mental health issues,” he said. “Her upbringing was extremely difficult.

“There’s always some unanswered questions in any case. But with Monique, there were some gaping ones as to what actually occurred and why.”

Life sentence in slaying of landlord

By Todd Cooper - Omaha.com

November 14, 2012

Cynthia and Karen Jenkins were so close they were like twins.

Born just 11 months apart, the sisters shared everything. They argued and laughed, telephoned and teased each other every day, even when Karen Jenkins was traveling to faraway places.

They shared something else, too: If Karen had a tenant who had trouble making rent, Cynthia would hire her to clean houses.

But one of those tenants, Monique Lee, began stealing from Cynthia, stopped showing up for work and stopped paying rent. After giving her several reprieves, Karen served Lee with an eviction notice in October 2010.

Two weeks later, Lee and her brother, Gary, lured Karen Jenkins, 48, to a vacant apartment — and strangled her.

Now Lee, 29, will serve a life sentence — after Douglas County District Judge James Gleason imposed the term Tuesday.

Cynthia Jenkins knows a little something about life sentences.

The Omaha woman said she's lost without her sister.

“Monique's pretty much killed me, too,” Cynthia Jenkins told the judge Tuesday. “I can't take care of my family the way I used to. I can't forgive her. I can't find any hope. I can't find any answers.

“What did (Monique) have to gain for what she did? It's a mystery.”

Lee's attorney, Douglas County Public Defender Tom Riley, said the mystery is rooted in mental illness. Riley had detailed Lee's history of mental illness from childhood — and had argued that Lee was not guilty by reason of insanity.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine acknowledged that Lee had mental illness but argued that she premeditated Jenkins' killing once she was served with the eviction papers. A jury convicted Lee, rejecting her insanity defense. Gary Lee was convicted of second-degree murder.

A week after her October 2010 disappearance, Jenkins' body was found under an abandoned house across the street from the bar Jenkins was renovating at 40th Street and Ames Avenue.

Now, whenever Jenkins' family gathers — be it at home or at the bar, now named Doc's Place — talk inevitably turns to the senselessness of Karen's death.

“That's the most frustrating part,” Cynthia Jenkins said. “Every time we get together, we try to make sense of it.”

It won't ever make sense, brother Kenneth Jenkins said.

Karen Jenkins, a businesswoman and former college instructor, had traveled the world and received a doctorate in conflict resolution. She was ornery and playful and full of energy, her family said.

“Karen had a way to give joy, to give a piece of herself to every friend she had,” Cynthia Jenkins said.

Ken Jenkins said the family is trying to focus on the quality of Karen's life, not the cruelty of her death.

“You can't hate,” he said. “If you hate, you can't pick the pieces up, can't move on. If you hate, you become them.”

‘I strangled her,’