Fire in Gangnam’s last shantytown rages on after four hours

A large fire broke out Tuesday afternoon in Guryong Village, a longstanding panjachon, or shantytown, in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, forcing more than 100 residents to evacuate. No deaths had been reported, but the fire was still burning as of 8 p.m.

Firefighters responded after a report at around 3:49 p.m. that a fire had broken out in a makeshift building in Zone 2 of the village, according to police and fire authorities. The village is divided into numbered zones, each a cluster of shacks along narrow alleys.

“When I heard around 4 p.m. that there was a fire and came to the village, the houses around Zones 2 and 3 were burning fiercely,” said Kim Taek-yu, 68, a Zone 7 resident who said he has lived in the village for about 20 years.

Strong winds pushed the flames across the village through the evening.

“The fire that first broke out in Zone 2 was spreading to Zone 1, but because of the wind it has continued to spread toward Zone 3,” Kim Hyun-seok, head of the fire administration division at the Gangnam Fire Station, said at a briefing at the scene at around 7:30 p.m. “Burning is now reaching the area near Zone 7.”

The village covers about 266,000 square meters (65.7 acres), roughly the size of 37 football fields. 

Firefighters have set up boundary lines and each unit is working to keep the fire from spreading, but a severe shortage of water nearby is making it hard to extinguish. “Six helicopters are dropping large amounts of water to focus on preventing a forest fire and fighting the blaze toward Zone 3, and we are also using fire truck water cannons, but the fire keeps spreading,” Kim said.

All 107 residents of 77 households in Zones 1 through 4 evacuated on their own, and no one was reported dead or missing, according to a preliminary count by the Gangnam District Office.

Authorities deployed 329 personnel, including firefighters, and 99 pieces of equipment, including six helicopters. President Lee Jae Myung ordered officials Tuesday afternoon to “mobilize all available resources to ensure that lives are saved and safety is secured.”

Some residents were devastated that another major fire had broken out just nine months after the last one. “I was on my way back from work when I heard someone say, ‘Looks like there’s a fire in Guryong Village,’ and I ran here,” said Kim Soon-ok, 70, a Zone 6 resident who has lived there for 26 years. “In the January fire, my whole house burned down and I couldn’t even grab a single piece of clothing. I’m at a loss that there’s another fire.”

Guryong Village has seen repeated fires over the years. The shacks, built wall to wall, are made of highly flammable materials such as tteoksom, which is thick cotton padding used for insulation, vinyl and plywood, and critics have long warned that they are vulnerable to fire. The narrow alleys also make it hard for fire trucks to get in, which hampers efforts to put out fires.

A fire in January burned for more than eight hours and forced about 180 residents to evacuate. Major fires also broke out during dry weather in January 2023 and March 2022.

As of 8 p.m., firefighters were focusing on minimizing casualties and keeping the flames from reaching nearby Mount Guryong. Authorities plan to investigate the cause once the fire is fully extinguished.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has set up four temporary shelters in the city for displaced residents.

BY SPECIAL REPORTING TEAM [[email protected]]