Firefighters contained the blaze at a Coupang Inc. logistics center in Incheon's Seohaegu district after 61 hours, setting a record as the longest initial containment time for a logistics center fire in South Korea.
The Incheon Fire Department said the fire at Coupang Inc.'s Warehouse No. 32 in Seoknam-dong, Seohaegu, was initially contained at 8 p.m. Monday. The fire broke out at around 6:54 a.m. Saturday and burned for three days.
Fire authorities deployed 231 pieces of equipment and 812 personnel, including firefighters, conducting nighttime suppression operations for three consecutive days before bringing the flames under control. Crews are maintaining their response level while clearing remaining embers.
A fire department official said that once the fire is fully extinguished, the National Fire Agency, the National Fire Research Institute and the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation plan to form a joint investigation team to probe the cause of the fire and assess the full extent of the damage.
The fire is set to be recorded as the longest initial containment time for a logistics center fire in South Korea. The previous record was held by the June 2021 fire at Coupang Inc.'s Deokpyeong logistics center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, which took 55 hours to initially contain. That fire broke out at around 5:20 a.m. on June 17, 2021, and was initially contained at around 12:25 p.m. on June 19, some 55 hours later.
By comparison, a 2020 fire at a logistics complex in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, took 21 hours to initially contain, while a 2022 fire at a cold-storage warehouse construction site in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, took 16 hours.
The Incheon warehouse stands eight stories above ground and covers a total floor area of 299,000 square meters — about 2.3 times the size of the Deokpyeong logistics center in Icheon, which has a floor area of 127,000 square meters. Firefighters struggled to suppress the blaze due to the large volume of flammable materials stored inside and the building's complex structure.
Full extinguishment is expected to take considerably more time. The Deokpyeong center took about 130 hours to fully put out, consuming roughly 53,000 cubic meters of stored goods, packaging paper and plastic wrap.
No casualties were reported. All 121 people inside the logistics center at the time, including employees, evacuated on their own.
Incheon's Seohaegu district issued an evacuation order for nearby residents on Sunday, citing the risk of building collapse. About 200 people are staying at temporary shelters.
After the fire broke out, fire authorities issued Level 1 and Level 2 alerts, then declared a national fire mobilization order, calling in personnel and equipment from eight neighboring cities and provinces for an all-out response. As suppression efforts dragged on, authorities installed collapse warning sensors at three key points in the building to prepare for a worst-case scenario.
soho0902@heraldcorp.com
