A towering inferno ripped through one of South Korea’s largest fashion logistics centers on Saturday, leaving the E-Land facility in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, a hollowed-out shell and destroying millions of garments inside.
No injuries were reported.
The fire broke out early in the morning, at around 6:08 a.m., before employees arrived for work. According to the South Chungcheong provincial fire headquarters, the blaze began on the fourth floor of the warehouse and spread rapidly, fueled by a massive inventory of clothing and footwear.
More than 11 million items were stored in the building, which spanned over 193,000 square meters.
Emergency response teams faced intense flames, thick black smoke, and blocked access points. Within an hour, the fire authorities declared a Level 2 emergency, bringing in 430 personnel, 150 vehicles and 11 helicopters. The main fire was brought under control after more than nine hours, but hotspots continued to burn into the night.
Firefighters even deployed a high-capacity water cannon system from Ulsan, the only one of its kind in the country, which sprays 45,000 liters of water per minute — roughly 20 times the capacity of standard fire trucks.
Helicopter operations ceased after sunset as crews shifted to overnight suppression efforts.
The scale of the damage is severe. The northern section of the warehouse partially collapsed, while the southern exterior was stripped away by heat and flames. A structural engineer at the site said the building’s internal supports had likely failed from within due to heat stress.
Though the cause remains under investigation, the same facility experienced a minor fire just nine days earlier. E-Land Group stated that incident was unrelated and confirmed that a full investigation will begin once the site is safe.
The facility, opened in 2014, processed up to 5 million parcels annually.
mjh@heraldcorp.com
