Image source: Yonhap News Agency
A fire on the evening of October 9 in the city of Ulsan in South Korea has led to “dozens hospitalised” according to reports, with the blaze continuing until the early hours of Friday morning. Multiple floors of the 33-storey building were engulfed.
While no deaths have been reported so far, 93 people have been sent to hospital with minor injuries caused by the smoke and damage and over 1,000 emergency service members responded to the incident. Slabs of concrete were seen falling to the street, as videos surfaced on social media not long after the blaze broke out.
According to the city’s news agency, “strong winds fanned the flames and made it difficult to completely extinguish the fire”, with flames still burning on the top three floors of the building into Friday morning. The blaze is now said to have been brought under control.
The cause remains unconfirmed, with an investigation already underway. Reports suggest that the fire started between the eighth and twelfth floors.
Back in late April, in a city not far from South Korea’s capital, Seoul, a fire also broke out an unfinished warehouse construction site, leaving 38 workers dead and another 10 seriously injured.
Incidents such as this were on the agenda at the recent Construction Fire Safety Conference, which took place on Wednesday 14 October.
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Looked suspiciously like the cladding was on fire in earlier photos.
We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on any developments if any more news comes out on the cause/reason for the scale of damage.