Prime Minister Han Seong-sook speaks at a heavy-rain response review meeting held at the Seoul Situation Center of the Central Disaster and Safety Situation Room at Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Saturday. [Yonhap]
Prime Minister Han Seong-sook speaks at a heavy-rain response review meeting held at the Seoul Situation Center of the Central Disaster and Safety Situation Room at Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Saturday. [Yonhap]

Prime Minister Han Seong-sook issued emergency instructions Saturday to Incheon city and relevant agencies — including the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the Korean National Police Agency and the National Fire Agency — in response to a fire at a Coupang Inc logistics center in Incheon. She ordered them to "thoroughly carry out on-site control, resident guidance and, if necessary, evacuation to prevent harm to residents."

Han also directed the National Fire Agency to "take every precaution to ensure the safety of firefighters engaged in suppression at the scene" and to "be alert to secondary accidents such as internal collapses caused by the fire."

According to fire authorities, the blaze broke out at around 6:54 a.m. Saturday on the sixth floor of Coupang's Logistics Center No. 32 in Seoknam-dong, Seohaegu, Incheon.

Authorities escalated their response in stages throughout the day — issuing a Level 1 alert at 9:15 a.m., two hours and 21 minutes after the fire started, followed by a Level 2 alert at around 12:25 p.m. and a national fire mobilization order at around 3:15 p.m. — as firefighting efforts continued.

A total of 121 people, including logistics center workers, self-evacuated when the fire broke out. During firefighting operations, a firefighter in his 40s was taken to hospital after inhaling smoke and is receiving hyperbaric oxygen treatment.


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