early 1970s photos of Seoul (Daeyeonggak Hotel fire)

Via The Marmot's Hole comes the piece of info that Scott Forey's photographs from early 1970s' Seoul and its environs are available also at Flickr in addition to Webshots; the former number little over 100, the latter over 200 pictures. (My earlier note on these photographs.) One photograph that draws attention is the one of a hotel after a fire. It is Taeyôn'gak Hotel, which caught fire in the morning of December 25, 1971 when propan gas exploded in the 1st floor. Number of dead was 167 and wounded 64. All the firefighting vehicles in Seoul were called and also USFK sent help, but ladders couldn't reach higher than to the 7th floor in the 21-floor hotel. Taeyôn'gak Hotel after fire; the text in the billboard in front of the hotel says "Let's eradicate smuggled coffee and prevent the outflow of foreign currency" (c) Harmolodic A capture of the Taeyôn'gak Hotel fire in the National Image Archive newsreel There is an old newsreel available in the MBC "news time machine" link above; the link given in the article doesn't seem to work, but this link to the wmv file should be ok. There is also a newsreel in the National Image Archive (국가기록영상관) - NOTE: does not work with Firefox. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: photography ∙ contemp.history ∙ Seoul ∙ urbanspace