An atmosphere of panic was already created when the narrator/ the doctor saw two sudden flashes, the collapsing roofs and walls and dislodged a piece of glass from his body. He was alarmed and shouted by the name of his wife. But no reply came at first. That was the very first time that the doctor felt ‘panic-stricken’. 

I called out, panic-stricken, to my wife.

Then when they came out to the street, they fell tripped by something at their feet and realised that it was the head of a dead man. And this made them afraid. Just after that, a house crashing before them and fire springing up in the dust were those two things that perfectly created the atmosphere of fear in the minds of the narrator and his wife Yecko-san. 

There we stood, afraid.
A house standing before us tilted, swayed,
Toppled, and crashed. Fire sprang up in the dust,
Spread by the wind.