Firefighters battle blaze in South Korea's Gangnam district
Nearly 300 South Korean firefighters were on Friday battling a major fire in a deprived area of the upmarket Gangnam district in southern Seoul, officials said.
No casualties have been reported, but 47 residents of Guryong Village were evacuated, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
According to officials, about 110 people lived in the affected area.
The fire broke out at around 5:10 a.m. (2010 GMT on Thursday). Authorities later raised the alert to the second-highest level, fearing the blaze might spread to a nearby mountain. Photographs from the scene showed a towering column of black smoke, as elderly residents wearing face masks evacuated.
“I was asleep until a neighbour called saying there was a fire. I ran out and saw the flames already spreading,” said 69-year-old Kim Ok-im, who has lived in the area for nearly 30 years. “A few years ago, a flood swept everything away, and now it feels like fire will take the rest,” she added, expressing concern about where she could live if her home was destroyed.
A total of 85 fire trucks were dispatched, but officials could not use a helicopter due to haze and fine dust over the city.
South Korean Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung ordered all available personnel and equipment to be mobilized to focus on rescuing lives and extinguishing the fire.
Guryong Village is a pocket of ramshackle housing in Gangnam, one of Seoul’s wealthiest districts, and is slated for redevelopment into high-rise residential buildings. Often described as Seoul’s largest remaining shantytown, Guryong was formed when families displaced by public works projects in the 1970s and 1980s — including construction for the Asian Games and the Seoul Olympics — settled on the edge of Gangnam without permits.
The makeshift homes are densely packed and built from highly flammable materials such as vinyl sheets, plywood, and Styrofoam, making the area particularly vulnerable to fires, according to a fire department assessment after a 2023 blaze. Most residents have moved out for redevelopment, but about 336 households remain, according to the Gangnam District city planning department.
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