Evacuation order near Incheon Coupang warehouse lifted after one day

An evacuation order issued following a fire at a Coupang Inc logistics center in Incheon was lifted Monday night.

Incheon's Seohaegu District held a situation assessment meeting chaired by the district mayor, who also heads the local disaster safety response headquarters, and decided to lift the order effective 11 p.m. that day. The order had been in place for just one day, having been issued Sunday at 11 p.m. and covering an area within a 116-meter radius of the warehouse's ramp zone.

The evacuation order applied only to commercial buildings and factories south of the Coupang logistics center; residential areas were excluded. Police officers and firefighters working at the scene were also exempt.

"We determined that the fire, which had been the cause of the building collapse risk, was brought under initial control, lowering the risk of collapse," a Seohaegu District official said.

The warehouse fire was brought under initial control at around 8 p.m. Monday, approximately 61 hours after it broke out at around 6:54 a.m. Saturday. Fire authorities are maintaining their response level while clearing remaining embers. With the flames now under control, Seohaegu District expects the number of residents at temporary shelters to decline.

Concerns about a structural collapse of the warehouse have also eased. The Korea Structural Engineers Association used National Fire Agency drones to inspect the internal structural framework of the building and assessed that the collapse risk in Building B, where the fire started, was low. Building A, to which the fire spread and which had at one point been flagged as at risk of toppling, was also found to have largely cleared the collapse risk.

Residents at temporary shelters set up at Sinhyeon Elementary School and Sinhyeon Buk Elementary School are expected to return home as conditions improve. As of 7 p.m. Monday, 202 residents remained at the shelters. They were not subject to the evacuation order but sought refuge voluntarily out of concern over smoke and dust exposure.