A fire broke out in a taxi near Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul around 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Police and fire authorities suspect that the taxi driver was in trouble. The taxi driver was taken to the hospital with a full-body burn.
Combining the description by fire authorities and police, the firemen who were on the road in front of the KT building in Gwangwhamun, Gyeonggi-do were extinguished in six minutes. A 65-year-old taxi driver who was in the car was taken to the Han River Seongsim Hospital with two 안전놀이터 full-body burns, and is relying on an oxygen respirator due to a burning airway. It has been confirmed that none of the passengers were aboard. Kim Moo-gae (49) who tried to save Lim while passing through the scene is also being treated at a hospital due to a one-degree burn on his hand.
Police and fire authorities currently suspect that Lim, a taxi driver, was burned to death and are investigating the exact cause of the fire. "A car that was seen as a taxi rose briskly near Gwangwhamun Station," said Kwon Myung-kae, a witness who witnessed a fire in the car, not in an engine. "It seems that there was a flammable substance inside the car where the fire broke out," said a police official. "We also found a oil container marked 'chips' on the surface of the vessel," a fire official said. "Simple emulsion test, which confirms whether flammable materials were present, has been positive."
Considering the words of the National Taxi Federation, Lim attended a massive rally against carpool in Yeouido, Seoul in December last year. "I heard that he delivered a will to his colleagues for recording," said Lee Yang-deok, executive director of the association. The protest site was set up after a taxi driver, who opposed the introduction of cacao carpool, burned himself to death on June 10. Lim's suicide note reportedly said, "It's too difficult to get a taxi and I can't make a day's living with a private taxi.