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Yesterday (17th) at dawn at the Coupang Logistics Center in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do, the fire has not been completely extinguished even after a day has passed. One firefighter who went in to put out the fire and could not get out is still isolated and unreachable. We will connect you to the coverage of the field.
Reporter Kim Hyung-rae, black smoke is coming out, how is the situation there?
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25 hours after the fire broke out, the flames visible from the outside had subsided to some extent, but smoke was spewing out from all over the burned down building to the extent that the skeleton was exposed.
Even here, about 300 meters away from the site, the smell of burning makes it difficult to breathe.
In particular, the inside of the building is still burning, and there is still a risk of the building collapsing due to the melting of the steel pillars, making it difficult for firefighters to enter.
The fire started on the second basement floor of the warehouse building at around 5:30 am yesterday, but during the extinguishing operation, the fire suddenly grew stronger and one firefighter could not get out.
As fears of the building collapse grew, the search operation was halted, and contact has been lost for 20 hours.
The fire department plans to decide when to deploy the search team while monitoring the situation at the scene as soon as the fire is extinguished.
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Reporter Kim, it means that it has been almost a day since the fire broke out. Why is it so difficult to fully extinguish fire?
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The biggest problem is that the building is filled with combustible boxes and plastics due to the nature of the warehouse.
In particular, the fire department explained that the fire spread greatly as parcels piled up on the 3rd shelf on the second basement floor, where the fire started, poured into the place where the fire was.
Authorities also said earlier that there were reports that the sprinkler malfunctions in the building were often delayed, and that they are checking the initial operation.