Daejeon, March 20 – A fire broke out at a car parts factory in Daejeon, a central city in South Korea, on Friday, injuring at least 50 people, including 35 with serious injuries, authorities said.
The fire was reported around 1:17 p.m., prompting the National Fire Agency to issue a national firefighting mobilization order, which is issued when the scale of the fire is deemed to exceed the firefighting capacity of the local government.
South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok gave emergency instructions to the Ministry of Interior and the fire agency to use all available equipment and personnel to rescue people and extinguish the fire, his office said.
He also ordered the Daejeon metropolitan government and the police to implement traffic control and evacuation measures to prevent further damage, Yonhap news agency reported.
Earlier on March 14, a fire broke out at a seven-story building in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea, which left 10 people injured, according to YTN reports.
The fire was believed to have started at a guesthouse on the third floor of the building around 6:10 p.m. local time. Ultimately, two people were seriously injured, and eight others sustained minor injuries; it was reported at the time that some of the injured were foreign nationals.
Fire authorities had issued a Level 1 emergency response and conducted.
Earlier on February 10, a fire broke out following an oil tank explosion in southeastern South Korea.
The fire occurred at an outdoor tank storage facility in Gyeongsan, located about 250 km southeast of Seoul.
The flames began with an explosion on top of the oil storage cover but subsequently subsided. At the time of the report, smoke was being observed rising from the site.
No casualties had been confirmed as of the conclusion of the initial emergency response.