Firefighters battle a large fire that broke out at 6:54 a.m. on July 18 on the sixth floor of Coupang's No. 32 logistics center in Seongnam-dong, Seohae District, Incheon.YONHAP
A fire at a Coupang logistics center in Incheon was still burning Sunday morning, more than 24 hours after it broke out, and had spread from the sixth floor to much of the seventh.
The blaze was reported at 6:54 a.m. Saturday on the sixth floor of Coupang's No. 32 logistics center in Seongnam-dong, Seohae District, and was still not out as of 8 a.m. Sunday, the Incheon Fire Headquarters said.
The center is an eight-story building with a gross floor area of 299,000 square meters (3.2 million square feet).
Two firefighters have been treated at hospitals since the fire started. One showed signs of exhaustion near the site at about 10:20 p.m. Saturday while working on safety management. They were treated at a hospital and later discharged. Another firefighter inhaled smoke earlier Saturday while fighting the fire from an aerial ladder truck and was also treated at a hospital.
Fire authorities have kept the national fire mobilization order in place, issued at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, with 221 pieces of equipment and 575 firefighters and police officers deployed at the scene.
Household goods and other stock stored inside the center are burning, and the thick smoke and intense heat have made the fire hard to fight. The sixth floor is packed with combustible household goods on three-tier shelving and racks, and crews have struggled to see inside and to get close.
The center's compartmentalized layout has added to the difficulty. Firefighters are clearing obstacles and spraying water as they work their way toward the fire.
Firefighters battle a large fire that broke out at 6:54 a.m. on July 18 on the sixth floor of Coupang's No. 32 logistics center in Seongnam-dong, Seohae District, Incheon.YONHAP
President Lee Jae Myung was briefed on the response and pressed officials to put the crews' safety first.
"Please devote every available resource to putting out the fire and take every precaution to keep the damage from spreading," Lee said. "Above all, be thorough about the safety measures for the firefighters on the scene."
Coupang Fulfillment Services, which operates Coupang's logistics centers, apologized Saturday and said it would cooperate fully with the authorities' investigation.
"We sincerely apologize for the worry that this fire at the Incheon logistics center has caused so many people," CEO Chung Jong-chul said in a statement.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
