Datelines of some articles in U.S. papers read Seoul, but it happened in Daegu, and so I didn't know anyone who was killed or injured in the subway fire. The man who set the fire yesterday morning is an ex-taxi driver who suffered a stroke in 2001. I've heard reports that he was suicidal, but he managed to get out of the train and the station.

The arsonist set flame to a bottle of flammable liquid. The flames spread very quickly because of the flammable nature of practically everything in the train car.

A second train pulled into the station four minutes after the fire started. I heard that the driver of the train, upon seeing the flames, tried to speed up and pass the station. But the emergency system reacted at the wrong time: electricity was cut off to the trains and the station. The train doors wouldn't open. The ventilation system did not turn on. There were no lights in the station. Safety doors cut off escape routes. Toxic fumes filled the cars and the station.

One headline I was able to understand was a quote from one of the train riders, a young woman who called her mother. It read: "Mom, save me. The doors won't open."

The death toll is at 130 and rising. Many bodies were burned to the bone. Many died of smoke inhalation.

Police are guarding the arsonist's hospital room against victims' relatives.