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Vietnam War veteran with hoarding disorder dies in apartment fire

Published: 30 Dec. 2025, 10:56 Updated: 30 Dec. 2025, 17:03

Access is restricted inside an apartment complex in Ulsan Nam District on Dec. 29, after a fire kills a resident in his 70s the day before. The man had reportedly been suffering from hoarding disorder for years. [YONHAP]

A Vietnam War veteran died in a fire in Ulsan after years of hoarding garbage in his house and refusing neighbors' help.

The fire broke out at around 6:56 p.m. Sunday in a unit on the seventh floor of a 10-story apartment building in Dal-dong, Nam District, according to the Ulsan Fire Department.

Firefighters battled the blaze while clearing out piles of garbage that had filled the apartment and succeeded in extinguishing the fire after approximately seven hours and 45 minutes. When firefighters opened the front door of the unit, they found the interior packed with trash piled as high as an adult man. The interior space was reportedly no longer functional as a living area.

The resident, a man in his 70s, was found unconscious atop a heap of garbage and was transported to a hospital, where he ultimately died. The man had lived alone in the apartment for nearly 20 years. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War and had been receiving a monthly veterans’ honor allowance of 450,000 won ($310).

According to the neighbors, the man had shown signs of hoarding disorder for years, filling his home with garbage, broken appliances and clothes. He was often seen returning from outings with plastic bags full of trash.

The apartment’s management office had once hired security staff to clean out the unit and even redecorated with new wallpaper and flooring, but the trash began to pile up again. When asked to clean up, the man reportedly replied, “Do whatever the law allows.”

A fire breaks out at an apartment building in Ulsan's Nam District on Dec. 28. [YONHAP]

Officials from the district office and local community center also visited multiple times to encourage him to clean, but he strongly refused.

The resident’s hoarding caused distress not only for himself but also for his neighbors, who endured foul odors and pests. However, under current regulations, local governments have limited authority to forcibly intervene in such cases.

While some municipalities have ordinances to support and monitor households suspected of hoarding, Nam District — where the fire occurred — has no such system in place.

The apartment was equipped with one indoor fire hydrant per floor but lacked sprinklers that automatically discharge water when a fire is detected. The fire department said the building was not legally required to have sprinklers installed.

Although under current fire safety laws, a 10-story apartment would require sprinklers, the building was approved for occupancy in 1996, when the law only mandated sprinkler systems for apartment buildings with 16 or more stories. Subsequent legal revisions have gradually expanded the sprinkler requirement, but the new rules are not applied retroactively. As a result, many older apartment buildings remain without sprinkler systems.

According to data released in June by the National Fire Agency, of the 9,894 apartment complexes in Korea that are over 20 years old, 4,460 — or 45.1 percent — do not have sprinkler systems installed.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]