Seoul
CNN
—
Around 500 folks had been evacuated from their properties on Friday after a fire broke out in Guryong Village, one of the last remaining slums in South Korea’s capital Seoul, in line with fire officers.
The fire broke out round 6:28 a.m. in the fourth district of the village, stated Shin Yong-ho, an official with the Gangnam Fire Station, in a televised briefing. First responders arrived round 5 minutes later, he stated.
No deaths or accidents have been reported up to now.
Around 60 properties are believed to have burned down, Shin stated, including most constructions are constructed from vinyl plywood panels.
Videos on social media present the fire engulfing what appears to be like like rows of properties, with large plumes of thick black smoke hanging above the slum as sirens wail close by.
More 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 Economic Forum, has been notified of the fire and has ordered authorities to mobilize “all available personnel and equipment,” in line with 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 specific danger of disasters, with the Gangnam authorities saying on its web site that the slum was “vulnerable to fires” in 2019.
It was additionally hit onerous by flooding last August, when report rainfall killed at least 13 people in Seoul – together with some residents trapped in the dingy “banjiha” basement properties depicted in the film “Parasite.”
The Guryong slum has lengthy been seen as an emblem of the hole between wealthy and poor in South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest financial system. It’s half of the rich, glittering Gangnam district, made well-known by Psy’s 2012 music “Gangnam Style” and generally referred to as the Beverly Hills of Seoul.
Gangnam’s high-rise condo buildings lie lower than a kilometer from the shacks of Guryong, the place many residents stay in cramped makeshift housing constructed from supplies like wooden and corrugated iron.
Though plans to redevelop the world stretch again no less than a decade, quite a few proposals have faltered attributable to 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 line with the Gangnam government website. More than 1,000 residents are nonetheless residing there, Gangnam officers confirmed on Friday.
The district shared extra redevelopment plans last May, with a local official saying the land can be was “an eco-friendly luxury residential complex.”
Authorities are working to assist relocate about 1,500 households residing in shacks throughout three main slums, together with Guryong, into public housing as an alternative, the Seoul authorities stated in a information launch last November.
It added that the town goals to finally “eliminate abnormal residences such as shacks and vinyl houses.”