Seoul
CNN
—
Round 500 folks have been evacuated from their houses on Friday after a fireplace broke out in Guryong Village, one of many final remaining slums in South Korea’s capital Seoul, in response to fireplace officers.
The hearth broke out round 6:28 a.m. within the fourth district of the village, stated Shin Yong-ho, an official with the Gangnam Fireplace Station, in a televised briefing. First responders arrived round 5 minutes later, he stated.
It was extinguished round 11:50 a.m. native time and broken an space of two,700 sq. meters.
No deaths or accidents have been reported to date.
Round 60 houses are believed to have burned down, Shin stated, including most buildings are made out of vinyl plywood panels.
Movies on social media present the hearth engulfing what seems like rows of houses, with enormous plumes of thick black smoke hanging above the slum as sirens wail close by.
Greater than 800 response personnel have been mobilized, together with firefighters, police and governmental staff, whereas 10 helicopters have been deployed to help with the response, Shin stated.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who’s in Switzerland attending the World Financial Discussion board, has been notified of the hearth and has ordered authorities to mobilize “all accessible personnel and tools,” in response to the presidential workplace.
Yoon additionally requested native governments to evacuate residents and make sure the security of rescue staff, his workplace stated.
Authorities have lengthy warned that Guryong residents are at explicit danger of disasters, with the Gangnam authorities saying on its web site that the slum was “susceptible to fires” in 2019.
It was additionally hit arduous by flooding final August, when file rainfall killed no less than 13 folks in Seoul – together with some residents trapped within the dingy “banjiha” basement houses depicted within the film “Parasite.”
The Guryong slum has lengthy been seen as a logo of the hole between wealthy and poor in South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economic system. It’s a part of the rich, glittering Gangnam district, made well-known by Psy’s 2012 music “Gangnam Type” and typically known as the Beverly Hills of Seoul.
Gangnam’s high-rise house buildings lie lower than a kilometer from the shacks of Guryong, the place many residents dwell in cramped makeshift housing constructed from supplies like wooden and corrugated iron.
Although plans to redevelop the world stretch again no less than a decade, quite a few proposals have faltered as a result of disagreements between native governing our bodies and negotiations over land compensation.
These efforts are ongoing, with 406 households – greater than a 3rd of the slum’s inhabitants – relocated as of 2019, in response to the Gangnam authorities web site. Greater than 1,000 residents are nonetheless dwelling there, Gangnam officers confirmed on Friday.
The district shared extra redevelopment plans final Might, with a neighborhood official saying the land could be became “an eco-friendly luxurious residential advanced.”
Authorities are working to assist relocate about 1,500 households dwelling in shacks throughout three main slums, together with Guryong, into public housing as an alternative, the Seoul authorities stated in a information launch final November.
It added that the town goals to finally “get rid of irregular residences reminiscent of shacks and vinyl homes.”
