A massive fire at a Coupang logistics center in Incheon, South Korea, burned for more than 52 hours starting Saturday [1].
The prolonged blaze at the eight-story facility [2] forced authorities to order emergency evacuations of nearby residents and businesses due to fears the building could collapse [3].
Emergency crews said the fire broke out on the sixth floor of the warehouse on July 18 [4]. To combat the flames, 412 personnel and 155 pieces of equipment were deployed to the scene [5].
Safety officials established an evacuation radius of 116 meters around the site to protect the public from potential structural failure [6]. Despite the intensity of the fire, 121 workers were evacuated safely from the facility [7].
The logistics center is located in Incheon, near the Seoul metropolitan area [8]. Firefighters continued battling the blaze into Monday, July 20, as the structure remained unstable.
Coupang, one of South Korea's largest e-commerce companies, operates the facility as part of its extensive delivery network. The scale of the response highlights the difficulty of managing fires in high-density logistics hubs where flammable materials and high-rise shelving can accelerate the spread of fire [8].
“A fire that burned for more than 52 hours, prompting evacuation orders over collapse risk”
The scale of this incident underscores the structural vulnerabilities of modern high-rise logistics centers. When fires occur on upper floors of these massive warehouses, the risk of total structural collapse increases, necessitating wider evacuation zones and more extensive firefighting resources than standard industrial fires.
