Coupang Incheon warehouse fire enters day 3 | first Korean logistics blaze under nationwide mobilization order
TL;DR
A fire that broke out at Coupang's Fulfillment Center No. 32 in Incheon on July 18 has burned for more than 47 hours by July 20 with no full containment. Authorities issued a nationwide fire mobilization order; 813 firefighters and 231 pieces of equipment are on scene. The 299,308-square-meter warehouse could see damages in the hundreds of billions of won.
At 6:54 a.m. on July 18, a fire broke out on the 6th floor of Coupang's Fulfillment Center No. 32 in Seohae District, Incheon. By the morning of July 20 the blaze had burned for more than 47 hours and was not yet under control. Fire authorities issued a national fire mobilization order that afternoon and deployed 813 firefighters and 231 pieces of equipment.
The facility is an 8-story reinforced concrete building with roughly 299,308 square meters of floor area — the mass of flammable material inside and the complex internal structure have doubled the difficulty of firefighting. Authorities forecast containment by midnight July 19; the fire reignited and stretched into a third day. Residents were told to evacuate over collapse concerns. 121 employees self-evacuated at the time; one firefighter was hospitalized for smoke inhalation without life-threatening injuries.
Industry estimates put building, inventory and business-disruption losses in the hundreds of billions of won (several hundred million dollars). Korean logistics fires have kept flaring for five years; Coupang itself lived through a deadly warehouse fire in 2021. This time the heart of the country's e-commerce grid is on fire.
via Korea JoongAng Daily / Korea Herald
The facility is an 8-story reinforced concrete building with roughly 299,308 square meters of floor area — the mass of flammable material inside and the complex internal structure have doubled the difficulty of firefighting. Authorities forecast containment by midnight July 19; the fire reignited and stretched into a third day. Residents were told to evacuate over collapse concerns. 121 employees self-evacuated at the time; one firefighter was hospitalized for smoke inhalation without life-threatening injuries.
Industry estimates put building, inventory and business-disruption losses in the hundreds of billions of won (several hundred million dollars). Korean logistics fires have kept flaring for five years; Coupang itself lived through a deadly warehouse fire in 2021. This time the heart of the country's e-commerce grid is on fire.
via Korea JoongAng Daily / Korea Herald
