A cluster of butane gas canisters exploded in the middle of the night at an apartment building in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, injuring two people. A man in his 40s who lives in the unit suffered full-body burns, and a neighboring resident who inhaled smoke was also taken to hospital. Fire and police authorities are investigating the exact cause of the blast.
The affected unit at the Seongdong-gu apartment looked as though it had been bombed when reporters visited Tuesday morning, the day after the Monday night explosion.
The unit's steel front door had been ripped entirely from its frame and lay on the hallway floor. The force of the blast traveled beyond the corridor and buckled the elevator doors, knocking the elevator out of service. The crumpled steel doors — folded like sheets of paper — gave a stark measure of the explosion's power.
The wooden interior doors had been torn apart, with pieces flung into the hallway, leaving the inside of the unit fully exposed. Emergency exit signs in the corridor had been ripped from the walls, and the interior was strewn with overturned furniture and household items.
The explosion occurred at around 11:15 p.m. Monday. About 70 residents evacuated on their own, causing a commotion in the building, though the blast did not spread into a fire. Fire authorities believe butane gas canisters were the source of the explosion.
Residents on the 18th floor, who bore the full brunt of the blast, had forgotten about going to work and were gathered in the hallway surveying the damage. Even units farther from the explosion had warped doors and shattered windows.
A resident surnamed Park, in his 60s, said he thought he was going to die. "I couldn't sleep a wink — my head is pounding," he said. A neighbor on the same floor, Cha, 35, had a bruise on his forehead after an air conditioning unit knocked loose by the blast struck him.
The explosion reverberated through the entire building. Jeong Deuk-sun, 81, a resident on the 13th floor, said the boom initially made her think the building was collapsing. "People ran down the stairs without even getting properly dressed," she said. "The gas wasn't working either, so I told my son to eat cold soup before heading out."
A notice posted in front of the elevator said repairs were scheduled for the morning, but the elevator was still under inspection as late as 10 a.m. Residents trudging up and down the stairs, wiping sweat from their faces, could be heard muttering, "What a disaster."
Bloodstains that had not yet been cleaned remained on the walls. Kim, 59, a resident on the 17th floor, said blood had been dripping all the way down to the fifth floor on Monday. "He came down with his clothes completely torn off," Kim said, describing the injured man.
Kim added that all the windows on the 17th floor had shattered and the frames had twisted, and that firefighters had asked residents to remove them to prevent further accidents.
Multiple portable butane gas canisters were reportedly found at the scene in a bundle. Fire authorities believe the canisters were the direct cause of the explosion.
Choi Don-muk, a professor in the fire and disaster prevention department at Gachon University, said that if the butane canisters were not defective, there must have been a sudden external pressure or a strong heat source. "If gas leaks and accumulates inside a sealed apartment, a spark or open flame can trigger an explosion powerful enough to blow out even fire doors," he said.
Ryu Seong-il, a professor in the fire and disaster administration department at Dong-eui University, said that if multiple butane canisters exploded simultaneously, the combined pressure could be enough to blow a front door off its frame.
The Seongdong Police Station and fire authorities are investigating the precise cause of the accident. A Seongdong Police Station official said investigators believe multiple butane canisters detonated, but added that the cause of the explosion has not yet been determined.
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