A fire early yesterday destroyed at least 60 homes in a neighborhood of densely packed, makeshift housing surrounded by some of the wealthiest streets of South Korea’s ultra-modern capital, forcing about 500 residents to flee.
Firefighters extinguished the flames in Seoul’s Guryong Village within about five hours, and no injuries or deaths had been reported as of yesterday afternoon.
Rescue workers were continuing to search areas affected by the fire, but that it was believed that all residents have safely evacuated, Gangnam fire department official Shin Yong-ho said.
Photo: AFP
Guryong is an encampment created in 1988 by squatters who lost low-income housing during rapid development in the lead-up to the Seoul Olympic Games.
More than 800 firefighters, police officers and public workers fought the flames and handled evacuations after the fire began at about 6:30am.
Photos showed firefighters fighting the flames under thick, white smoke covering the village as helicopters sprayed water from above. Later, orange-suited rescuers searched through the charred landscape where gray tendrils of smoke were still rising. The capital’s skyscrapers gleamed a short distance away.
About 500 residents evacuated to nearby facilities including a school gym, and officials were moving an unspecified number of people to three hotels, Gangnam District official Kim Ah-reum said.
“How could this happen on the Lunar New Year holidays?” 66-year-old village resident Kim Sung-han said.
“I had to run out of home only in these clothes,” without being able to bring out anything else, Kim said. “I couldn’t go to work ... when it’s already so hard to live.”
Village community leader Lee Woon-cheol said residents were able to swiftly share the news about the fire through their emergency contacts, and that firefighters were going door-to-door searching for people to help them evacuate.
“This is where a lot of accidents happen because of electrical short circuits,” Lee said in an interview.
Shin said it was presumed that the fire began at a village home made with plastic sheets and plywood.
News of the fire alarmed South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who while visiting Switzerland for the Davos meetings instructed officials to mobilize all available resources to minimize damage and casualties, his spokesperson Kim Eun-hye said.
The country is still reeling after nearly 160 people died in a crowd surge at a Seoul nightlife district in October. Experts blame that deadly crush on poor planning by officials and police, who failed to employ basic crowd control measures despite anticipating huge gatherings of Halloween revelers.
Guryong Village, home to about 600 people, has long been a symbol of South Korea’s stark income inequalities.
The hillside village has often been damaged by fire over the years, a vulnerability that has been linked to its tightly packed homes built with materials that easily burn. Eleven houses were destroyed during a previous fire at the village in March last year, and about 100 people were forced to evacuate after parts of the area became flooded by rain last year.
Seoul planned to redevelop the area in 2011, but the efforts have stalled over disagreements between city officials and residents over land compensation and other issues.
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