Fire tears through illegal home encampment on edge of South Korea’s wealthy capital Seoul

Seoul, South Korea — A fireplace destroyed about 60 makeshift houses in a densely packed neighborhood surrounded by among the wealthiest streets of South Korea’s ultramodern capital Friday. Firefighters extinguished the flames in Seoul’s Guryong village inside about 5 hours, and no accidents or deaths had been reported.
 
Shin Yong-ho, an official on the hearth division of Seoul’s Gangnam district, stated rescue staff had searched areas affected by the hearth however all residents had been believed to have safely evacuated.
 
More than 800 firefighters, cops and public staff fought the flames and dealt with evacuations after the hearth started round 6:30 a.m.
 
Photos confirmed firefighters combating the flames underneath thick, white smoke protecting the village as helicopters sprayed water from above. Later, orange-suited rescuers searched by way of the charred panorama the place grey tendrils of smoke had been nonetheless rising. The capital’s skyscrapers gleamed a brief distance away.

“How could this happen on the Lunar New Year holidays?” 66-year-old village resident Kim Sung-han advised The Associated Press, referring to one of many nation’s greatest holidays that begins this weekend and continues by way of Tuesday.
 
“I had to run out of home only in these clothes,” with out with the ability to convey out the rest, Kim stated. “I couldn’t go to work… when it’s already so hard to live.”
 
Lee Woon-cheol, one of many group leaders on the village, stated residents had been in a position to swiftly alert others to the hearth and that firefighters went door-to-door trying to find individuals and serving to them evacuate.
 
“This is where a lot of accidents happen because of electrical short circuits,” Lee advised the YTN news channel. The reason behind the hearth hasn’t been decided.
 
Kim Ah-reum, an official on the Gangnam district workplace, stated round 500 residents evacuated to close by amenities together with a faculty gymnasium. Officials say most of them had been anticipated to return residence however not less than 45 individuals whose homes had been destroyed or severely broken could be quickly staying at a lodge. Some of the 60 houses that burned down had been unoccupied.
 
The news of the hearth alarmed South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who whereas visiting Switzerland for the Davos conferences instructed officers to mobilize all out there sources to reduce injury and casualties, his spokesperson Kim Eun-hye stated.
 
South Korea remains to be dealing with its worst catastrophe in nearly a decade, after practically 160 individuals died in a crowd surge at a Seoul nightlife district in October. Experts blame that lethal crush on poor planning by police and administrative officers, who did not make use of primary crowd management measures regardless of anticipating big gatherings of Halloween revelers.

Guryong village, an unlawful encampment situated simply throughout a large freeway from a few of Seoul’s costliest actual property, marked by towering high-rise residences and lavish procuring districts, has lengthy been a logo of South Korea’s stark earnings inequalities.

The hillside village has usually been broken by hearth through the years, a vulnerability that has been linked to its tightly packed houses constructed with supplies that simply burn. Eleven homes had been destroyed by a fireplace in March, and floods pressured round 100 individuals to evacuate final August.

The village, which has round 670 houses although not all are occupied, was shaped within the Eighties as a settlement for individuals who had been evicted from their unique neighborhoods underneath town’s huge home clearings and redevelopment initiatives.
 
Hundreds of 1000’s of individuals had been faraway from their houses in slums and low-income settlements throughout these years, a course of the nation’s then-military leaders noticed as essential in beautifying town for overseas guests forward of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
 
Seoul’s metropolis authorities first introduced plans to redevelop the world in 2011 however the efforts have stalled over disagreements between metropolis officers and residents over land compensation and different points.