South Korean police said they would seek an arrest warrant for a woman who set fire to her apartment building and tried to kill a cockroach with an improvised flamethrower, local media reported.
One of the woman’s neighbors died after falling to the floor in a failed attempt to escape through a window.
The 20-year-old woman told police she tried to set fire to the cockroach with a lighter and flammable spray, a method she had used before. But on Monday, things in her house caught fire.
Police in the northern city of Osan said the woman could be charged with accidental fire and causing death by negligence.
Blasting cockroaches – along with blowtorches or homemade flamethrowers – has emerged as an innovative way to get rid of house pests, popularized by videos on social media.
In 2018, an Australian man set his kitchen on fire while trying to kill cockroaches with a homemade flamethrower made from insect spray.
The woman who died in the Osan city fire, a 30-year-old Chinese national, lived on the fifth floor of the building with her husband and two-month-old baby.
Realizing the fire, the couple opened the window of the house and called for help.
They passed their baby through the window to a neighbor in the next block before trying to pull themselves out.
The woman’s husband managed to climb to the next block. She tried the same, but fell from the window. She was rushed to the hospital and was pronounced dead a few hours later.
Police said they believed the couple had tried to escape through a window as thick smoke from the fire blocked the staircase, local media reported.
The building has commercial shops on the first floor and 32 residential units on the second to fifth floors.
Eight other residents suffered from smoke inhalation due to the fire.
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