On 7 January 2008, a

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

occurred in

Icheon Icheon () is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Together with Yeoju, Icheon is known as a center of South Korean ceramic manufacturing and is a UNESCO City of Crafts and Folk Art. Other famous local products include peaches and rice. Loc ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, killing 40 workers as they were injecting urethane foam into the walls of the 20,000 square-meter basement.South Korea warehouse fire kills 40
/ref>South Korea warehouse fire kills 40
/ref> It happened at a

cool warehouse A cool warehouse or cold storage warehouse is a warehouse where perishable goods are stored and refrigerated. Products stored can be, amongst other things, food, especially meat, other agricultural products, pharmaceutical drugs, other chemicals ...

that was under construction at a refrigerated goods facility. More than 500 firefighters fought the fire from which witnesses claimed to hear multiple

explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are kno ...

s. Along with thick black smoke, toxic fumes hampered interior-attack firefighting operations. Holes were subsequently drilled in the roof to allow the toxins and smoke to escape. It was the deadliest fire in South Korea since the Daegu subway fire on 18 February 2003, which killed 192 people. A different fire in Icheon on 29 April 2020 killed 38 people.

References

{{coord missing, South Korea 2008 fires in Asia Cool warehouses Building and structure fires in South Korea Icheon 2008 in South Korea Construction accidents Explosions in South Korea 2008 disasters in South Korea

See also

References