Explosions, thick smoke mark 13-hour battle at Coupang Inc warehouse fire in Incheon

A massive fire broke out Saturday morning at Coupang Inc's No. 32 logistics center in Seognam-dong, Seohaegu, Incheon, sending thick, acrid smoke billowing across the surrounding area as repeated explosions thundered from inside the building. The blaze, which started on the sixth floor at around 6:54 a.m., remained uncontrolled more than 13 hours later and continued to spread.

Fire authorities said the flames had climbed the building's exterior walls and reached the seventh floor. Firefighters broke windows to ventilate the intense heat and smoke from inside, but dense black smoke poured through the gaps and blanketed the sky, visible from about 2 kilometers away. A nearby merchant told Yonhap that dozens of explosions had been heard from inside the building since morning. "The smell of toxic fumes is so bad that we've had to keep all our doors shut," the merchant said.

The building is a large, eight-story warehouse with a total floor area of 299,000 square meters, featuring a ramp system that allows freight vehicles to drive directly to upper floors for loading and unloading. The sixth and seventh floors, where the fire was most intense, were stacked with large quantities of flammable household goods on three-tier shelving units, fueling the spread of the blaze. The building's unusually high floor-to-ceiling height vastly expanded the volume firefighters needed to suppress, and thick smoke inside made visibility virtually impossible.

The fire forced a complete closure of the six-lane road in front of the logistics center. The stretch from the SK petrochemical intersection to the junction in front of the center was packed with pump trucks, aerial ladder trucks and other firefighting equipment rushed in from across the country. Firefighters who had battled the blaze for hours rotated out of the building in turns, briefly removing their protective gear to hydrate before heading back in. Nearby facilities, including Sinseok Sports Park and auto parts factories, had not been reached by the fire as of Saturday afternoon.

All 121 people inside the building when the fire broke out evacuated safely on their own. One firefighter was injured during suppression operations — a firefighter in his 40s working from an aerial ladder truck inhaled toxic fumes and was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was receiving hyperbaric oxygen treatment.

Fire authorities issued a Level 1 response at 9:15 a.m., escalated to Level 2 at 12:25 p.m. and then issued a national fire mobilization order at 3:15 p.m. An additional 54 pieces of equipment were dispatched from eight cities and provinces — Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, Daejeon, Sejong, Gangwon Province, North Chungcheong Province, South Chungcheong Province and North Jeolla Province — including 24 aerial and articulated ladder trucks, 23 water tankers, one unmanned firefighting robot and six recovery support vehicles. A total of 480 firefighting personnel and 169 pieces of equipment were deployed at the scene.

Choi Yong-cheol, head of the Central Emergency Rescue Control Unit and acting director of the National Fire Agency, ordered commanders on the ground to monitor the risk of structural collapse closely and pursue suppression operations systematically within the bounds of firefighter safety. "Mobilize all available firefighting resources and special equipment nationwide and make every effort to bring the fire under control," he said.

Authorities were avoiding reckless entry into the building, prioritizing personnel safety. After consulting structural engineering experts on collapse risks, firefighters worked to secure access routes through the freight vehicle ramp zone on the side of the building.

Jeon Jae-in, head of the 119 disaster response division at Incheon's Seobu Fire Station, told reporters at a briefing that extreme heat and toxic fumes inside the building made it very difficult for firefighters to enter and maintain visibility. "We are establishing fire containment lines at key positions throughout the building while deploying heavy equipment such as excavators and forklifts to clear obstacles blocking interior access," Jeon said.

Coupang Inc issued an official statement Saturday evening under the name of Chief Executive Jeong Jong-cheol, apologizing to Incheon residents and the public for the distress caused by the fire. Jeong said the company immediately called 119 upon discovering the blaze and that all employees evacuated safely thanks to the fire department's rapid response. "We will spare no material or human support to ensure firefighting operations proceed without disruption, with the safety of the firefighters battling on the scene as our top priority, and we will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities' investigation into the cause of the fire," he said.