Getting up early in blissful morning on Christmas day of 1971, I packed my gears and headed out to my neighboring town, YunHee-Dong, where I go for skating as I have skated couple of times already for the winter. Walking to the skating took more than thirty minutes walking, but it was enjoyable thinking about all the fun that I would have while skating and having snacks at the place. Back then YunHee-Dong had many rice paddies as the town was not fully developed for residential area as nowadays; in summer time, I used to go there to catch slimy fish in small ponds. The skating place was nearby the main street, and a half dozen people sharping blades for the people would be encountered; these workers appeared along the path of the main street as soon skating season started - they were sitting on wooden benches, pursing and pulling a round sharping stone on sitting on two blades. As they were making the motions, steam bellowed out from their mouth in the cold weather. Although I might have thought that they were feeling cold in early morning, all their motion pushing the stone would make their body feel warm. Around the time, the rice paddies in the town started taken away by influx of people coming, forming new residential areas, and I could see houses were getting built here and there. The ice place was made temporarily by freezing rice paddy. Couple of weeks earlier, I had to look for another skating place frantically upon finding that the skating place in the past year was no longer in service. Luckily, a new skating place was opened across the main artery on the other side of the downtown. It was a huge relief finding the new place for skating as I could continue enjoy skating for the winter. On that day, I headed out in the mood of celebrating for the special occasion with a bit of doubt that the skating place would be open. Heading out in gleeful mood in the dawn, I felt that it would be a mild day, not terribly cold, around 0 degree Celcius, thinking crispy winter day ahead made me feel good for the winter vacation had just begun.
Upon arriving, I felt how fortunate to the place was open. Furthermore, the ice condition was in good condition with fresh coat of ice formed overnight. There were already few people skating in sight as sun rose from top of mountain nearby. After putting my skates on sitting on a wooden bench laid in vinyl makeshift huts, I stepped out onto the ice rink, feeling novelty of the ice surface, cool crispy morning touching my face seeing sun's ray gliding on the frozen surface. Through the speakers that had been placed around the rink to play music, Christmas carols were played continuously, and people were skating happily in the holiday spirits. As the crowd gathered mid morning and past the lunch time, the atmosphere was even more swell, and I thought that I would not have found a better place to be in the holiday spirits that will abruptly wane down once the skating was over. The morning was absolutely calm with no stirring of wintery wind. After three hours of skating and having munches in between breaks, my feet started to sore, and I contemplated leaving the place to go back home. getting off the rink, I felt good as if would fly, walking all the way home savoring the fine weather. The Christmas carol song, "Jingle Bells," in English that I heard back in the rink was constantly being played in my ears, and I tried to shake it off by asserting myself that Christmas is almost gone reminding myself to look forward to coming of the New year's Day.
Upon arriving home, I saw two women, my mother and my great-grandmother, were sitting in front of TV, which was rather unusual for I had never seen them together watching T.V. and sitting close by to each other, and my great-grandmother kept saying, "아이고, 저걸어쩌나!," watching an incident of fire broke out in downtown as it was being televised. My attention was immediately drawn to the TV; a tall white building in downtown bellowing thick smoke from virtually all its windows; many firemen were desperately trying to put out the fire on the ground and several tall ladders being stretched out to the mid-section of the building in dire situation. It was a tall building, and I had never seen any ladder could reach that high; however, it was not reaching quite up to a room in mid-section of the building where a man was standing by the window to be rescued. It looked to me that the fire spread out quickly from the bottom of the building giving him no chance to escape the fire, stranded in his room. The T.V. camera zoomed in to broadcast the scenes of rescuing the man, reporting that the man had been waiting more than several hours already... and the difficulties of decisive help could not be made. The man looked over 40 years old, and the camera could not zoom in close enough to see the man's face.
Finally, the man was rescued, and I saw the man was being taken away by an ambulance. It was the worst of human tragedy that I have ever seen showing live on TV. The firemen put out their best fights and I saw their heroic efforts in action trying to rescue the man; the was put out after so many hours of fighting the fire. Later, I heard a report that the casualties were very high, and the man who hanged tight all the way to the end calling for help standing by the window was succumbed to dying despite his indomitable will to survive; had the man was rescued one hour yearly, he would have survived.
The incident of the fire was still to vivid in my memories. It was the time when I didn't know precisely where the building was located. After several years, I was passing by the place, and saw the building in actual size, all reconstructed and painted standing there as if it had forgotten what had happened on that Christmas day. I thought of the man as I was passing by it, who had been waiting so patiently and so desperately in the inferno for a help to arrive, standing by the window inhaling toxic fume; his indomitable will to survive is still to vivid in my memories.
The big fire on that Christmas day had a potent effect of making Christmas carol songs stop playing in my ears instantly. God bless the soul of the man and so many other people who lost their lives tragedically in the incident, and I sincerely hope that such fire casualty does not happen again in Korea and anywhere else.
Finally, the man was rescued, and I saw the man was being taken away by an ambulance. It was the worst of human tragedy that I have ever seen showing live on TV. The firemen put out their best fights and I saw their heroic efforts in action trying to rescue the man; the was put out after so many hours of fighting the fire. Later, I heard a report that the casualties were very high, and the man who hanged tight all the way to the end calling for help standing by the window was succumbed to dying despite his indomitable will to survive; had the man was rescued one hour yearly, he would have survived.
The incident of the fire was still to vivid in my memories. It was the time when I didn't know precisely where the building was located. After several years, I was passing by the place, and saw the building in actual size, all reconstructed and painted standing there as if it had forgotten what had happened on that Christmas day. I thought of the man as I was passing by it, who had been waiting so patiently and so desperately in the inferno for a help to arrive, standing by the window inhaling toxic fume; his indomitable will to survive is still to vivid in my memories.
The big fire on that Christmas day had a potent effect of making Christmas carol songs stop playing in my ears instantly. God bless the soul of the man and so many other people who lost their lives tragedically in the incident, and I sincerely hope that such fire casualty does not happen again in Korea and anywhere else.
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