Fire authorities in Seoul said twin blazes at neighboring commercial buildings in the Yeoksam area of Gangnam left one person in cardiac arrest, injured 18 others and prompted roughly 60 people to evacuate on Tuesday morning, with officials treating the fires as unrelated until investigators finish their work.
How the fires unfolded
The first alarm reached the Gangnam Fire Station at 11:54 a.m., reporting flames on the third floor of a building in Yeoksam-dong, according to Yonhap News Agency. Crews arrived within four minutes and declared “Code Zero,” the city’s highest initial response tier, before upgrading to a first-stage disaster mobilization ten minutes later that pulls every unit in the jurisdiction.
At 12:01 p.m., a second fire was reported at a nearby building. Fire officials said the two incidents are believed to be unconnected, though police told Korean broadcasters they are examining whether the first blaze may have been deliberately set. Causes for both fires remain under investigation after firefighters extinguished the flames.
Casualties and hospital transfers
Authorities said the first building fire left one person in cardiac arrest and 10 others injured, while the second left eight people hurt, all described as minor injuries in updated Korean-language briefings. Eleven people were taken to hospitals after inhaling smoke, and responders set up a temporary treatment station at the scene.
Fire officials said they did not believe anyone remained trapped inside either structure once searches concluded. The midday timing placed the incident squarely in one of Seoul’s busiest office corridors, where lunch-hour crowds filled sidewalks as smoke rose above glass-fronted towers.
Response scale
Gangnam’s fire department dispatched 115 personnel and 56 vehicles to the paired incidents, a footprint usually reserved for high-rise or multi-site emergencies. Police cordoned alleys between the buildings to keep onlookers clear of falling debris and to preserve evidence lanes for arson technicians if the probe moves in that direction.
Shop owners on the lower floors told local television crews they heard explosions or popping sounds before sprinklers activated, but those accounts have not been confirmed by investigators. Elevators were shut down and stairwells used for evacuations while engineers checked whether heat had compromised power feeds shared between the properties.
What happens next
Seoul Metropolitan Police and the National Forensic Service are expected to map ignition points on the third and fourth floors once structural engineers certify the stair cores safe. Business tenants face at least temporary closures while smoke damage is assessed, a blow to a district that hosts law firms, clinics and restaurants dependent on weekday foot traffic.
City officials said they would publish an updated casualty list after hospitals confirm statuses, including whether the cardiac-arrest patient regains a stable pulse. For now, Gangnam authorities are urging neighboring buildings to check fire doors and backup batteries, citing the rare back-to-back escalations in a single block.