The electric fan has claimed yet another victim, this time in Gwangju. A 48-year-old man found his 40-year-old wife dead at their home when he returned home from work. Police are still trying to determine the cause of death, but noting how the fan was turned on at the scene, they believe she died after she fell asleep with the fan running in a closed room.
Meanwhile, in Gyeongsangnam-do alone, there have been two suspected hypothermia deaths this year resulting from elderly folk falling asleep with the fan on.
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Wow. With how hot it’s been this summer, I’ve been keeping the fan on pretty constantly when I sleep. Good thing I’m not in South Korea, or I might have died.
Drinking good coffee will help prevent fan death.
Ever want to bump someone off in Korea and get away with it? Just close the windows and turn on the fan and you’ve covered your tracks.
how can the DNA results from the case of the french babies be trusted in a country where police “solve” cases by noting running fans and closed doors?
if i’m ever in a car accident, i will turn on the air-con in the car and roll up the windows before the police arrive.
“sure, officer, i hit that other car and three people on the sidewalk, but i was fighting for my life!”
fan is to cause of death as “hate us because we’re free” is to cause of terrorism.
Like I said before, fan death is the perfect murder cover in Korea. I bet the guy poisoned her and turned a fan on. CSI: Kwangju doesn’t even have to break a sweat. “Toxicity tests? Who you trying to kid? It’s obviously fan death.”
i think i would have died without the fan on last night. how long is this damn heat going to last?
Jd, the same country that busted Ben Johnson in 1988.
i still can’t bring myself to sleep with the fan on. to me the deadliest appliance in my house is the electric fan.
by the way, how hot is it in seould these days?
Now it’s about average high 88 - average low 74 for the past two weeks. Temperature is dropping slightly now but the humidity is still very high - the humidity is killer.
The evenings begin to cool of slightly in mid-September but the daytime temps don’t really drop much until the end of September.
If you guys allow yourselves to swelter all night without the benefit of air blowing over you, the fans win! (with apols to iheartblueballs)
These news pieces are simply the result of efforts by hardworking media relations folk out of the HVAC divisions of your local chaebols. The HVAC is never to blame - heck, even those ‘Robby the Robot’ standing AC’s somehow dodge the murder rap.
i must have slept in my room with the fan on with the doors closed at least a thousand times. i must have some sort of superpower. i better see if i have any other untapped superpowers like flying.
i think iceberg is onto something. although i still can’t believe CSI’s would be that stupid. but i’m sure there are some that would take a bribe to pin it on the fan.
I was suspicious that a 40-yr-old would transpire in those conditions since heat-related deaths tend to strike the elderly. The last sentence of the original Korean newsstory noted that the police were investigating the death as a possible homicide. I wonder how many unnatural deaths are made to look like “fan deaths.” At least the police are investigating.
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[...] Of course, what’s sensible when people believe you can die from falling asleep in the same room with a fan? This is not a joke. It is actually believe in South Korea. [...]