Wooshin Golden Suites fire

Fire

• The fire started around 11:34am on the 4th floor.
• A fire engine with a 52-metre ladder was launched, but firefighters could not control the fire because it spread so quickly.
• Within 20 minutes, the blaze had reached the 38th floor.
• According to the Korea Times, the blaze was extinguished after 2.5 hours, after mobilising dozens of fire engines and a helicopter that dropped water on the building from above. According to Nathan White and Michael Delichatsios, writing in Fire Hazards of Exterior Wall Assemblies Containing Combustible Components, the original 4th-floor fire was put out by 1 pm, with the entire building fire-free by 6.48 pm.
• Some residents were evacuated by helicopter from the building's roof.

  Causes and background

• There was no sprinkler in the 4th-floor room where the fire started.
• The reinforced glass in the windows hindered firefighters.
• The building featured flammable aluminium composite cladding with a polyethylene core, along with glass wool or polystyrene insulation; the fire rapidly spread up the facade, reaching the top of the tower within 20 minutes.
• The fire primarily spread up a vertical U-shaped indentation in the building's exterior, which created a chimney effect, possibly enhanced by wind blowing in from the sea.

  Casualties

• 4 residents and 1 fire fighter were injured.