Winds hamper efforts to extinguish Incheon factory fire

A factory fire broke out in Incheon on Sunday morning, with strong winds carrying the flames to adjacent factories and nearby mountains. The blaze has affected more than 30 buildings as of 3 p.m.

Incheon firefighters extinguish a fire at a factory in Incheon on Sunday morning. [NEWS1]

A factory fire broke out in Incheon on Sunday morning, with strong winds carrying the flames to adjacent factories and nearby mountains.

The Incheon Fire Services received a report of a fire accident at a machinery manufacturing plant in Wanggil-dong, Seo District in Incheon, at around 8:44 a.m.

Firefighters arrived at the site approximately six minutes after receiving the report. At around 9:14 a.m., the fire authority ordered a “stage 1” response, the lowest of its three-tier response system, mobilizing fire crews in the affected district.

At 11:02 a.m., the fire services escalated the response level to “stage 2,” seeking assistance from five to six fire stations outside the district.

A total of 193 fire crews, 72 pieces of equipment and five helicopters were mobilized. Despite the helicopters dropping water to control the fire, extinguishing the blaze has proven difficult, with heavy gusts hampering the aerial effort.

At 1:58 p.m., the response level was readjusted to "stage 1" after the authority prevented the fire from spreading further.

At 3:55 p.m., the fire services lifted the response level after containing the main blaze.

The authority assessed that the fire started at a steel-structured one-story building that spans 300 square meters (3,229 square feet). The heavy gust spread the fire to other adjacent factory buildings.

The fire services said that as of 3 p.m., at least 30 buildings had been damaged or burned down by the blaze.

No casualties have been reported so far.

The smoke was sighted in nearby cities such as Gimpo, Goyang and western Seoul’s Mapo District.

A man in his 40s who was driving between Mapo District and Paju, Gyeonggi, said he saw “an enormous cloud of smoke covering the sky, which appears to be arising from Incheon.”

Incheon’s Seo District Office sent six safety alerts to its residents, warning them not to inhale smoke. It also asked hikers to evacuate to safe areas and to refrain from entering the trail on the mountain.

Cho Bo-hyung, a manager of the 119 disaster response division at Incheon's Geomdan Fire Station, said, "The blaze spread quickly while firefighters struggled to park fire trucks as the affected buildings were tightly packed together."

The fire services said it would identify the specific cause of the fire and assess total losses after it contains the blaze.

Update, Oct. 20: added details about the fire services' measure take at 3:55 p.m.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG, PARK JONG-SUH, LEE CHAN-KYU, SHIN HYE-YEON [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]