Gwangju, South Korea โ May 18, 2025 โ Firefighters have made significant progress in battling a massive blaze at the Kumho Tire Gwangju factory, with containment reaching 70โ75% roughly 14 hours after the fire broke out early Saturday morning.
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Massive Fire at Kumho Tire Gwangju Factory: Black Smoke Blankets City |
The fire began at approximately 7:11 a.m. on May 17 in the compounding process area of Factory No. 2, where raw rubber and chemicals are mixed to produce tire materials. Initial reports suggest the fire started when a spark ignited inside an industrial preheating oven, triggering a rapid spread of flames due to the flammable nature of the rubber materials.
By 8:50 p.m., fire authorities confirmed that while initial fears predicted the complete loss of Factory No. 2, only about 60% of the building was damaged. Crews successfully established firebreaks to prevent the blaze from spreading to adjacent areas, including a nearby lot filled with finished tiresโestimated to be the size of one and a half football fields.
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Massive Fire at Kumho Tire Gwangju Factory |
Fire crews, includingย 350 personnel,ย 15 high-performance chemical fire engines,ย 9 helicopters, andย 2 high-capacity foam cannons, have been deployed under aย National Fire Mobilization Orderโthe highest emergency response level. Officials believeย full containment could be achieved as early as today.
Overnight efforts significantly reduced theย thick black smokeย that had previously blanketed the sky, signaling effective control of theย main fire zone. Helicopter-assisted aerial firefighting is continuing throughout Sunday to extinguish remaining hot spots.
Overย 400 factory workersย were safely evacuated when the fire broke out.ย Unfortunately, aย worker in his 20sย suffered serious injuries after falling during evacuation and is currently hospitalized. Two firefighters were also injured, one sustainingย second-degree burnsย during a cooling operation near aย waste oil storage tank.
Due to theย toxic smoke and airborne particles,ย 146 residents from 62 householdsย in nearby apartment complexes were temporarily relocated to an emergency shelter set up atย Gwangju Women's University Gymnasium.
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Helicopters was deployed to extinguish the fire atย Kumho Tire Gwangju Factory |
In response to the fire and potential chemical exposure:
- The Ministry of Environment has issued a โConcernโ level chemical accident warning.
- Measures are in place to block contaminated runoff from entering nearby streams.
- Air quality monitoring is ongoing in surrounding areas to assess potential health risks.
Authorities are currently reassessing the emergency response level based on progress. If full containment is reached by midnight, officials may downgrade the current status and begin recovery operations.
- Factory No. 1 (South Block)
- Factory No. 2 (West Block)
The fire was confined to Factory No. 2, specifically in the early-stage rubber compounding sectionโa critical phase in tire production where natural rubber is mixed with chemicals before molding. Operations at the entire Gwangju factory have been suspended until the investigation and recovery are complete.
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The second day after the fire at Kumho Tire's Gwangju plant |
๐ Learn Korean Through This News
Korean Text:
"17์ผ ์ค์ 7์ 11๋ถ์ฏค ๊ธํธํ์ด์ด ๊ด์ฃผ๊ณต์ฅ ๋ด ์์ชฝ ๊ณ ๋ฌด์ ๋ จ ๊ณต์ฅ๋์์ ํ์ฌ ๋ฐ์ํ๋ค. ๊ณ ๋ฌด์ ๋ จ ๊ณต์ฅ๋์ ์ถ๊ตฌ์ฅ 1๊ฐ ๋ฉด์ (์ฝ 7000ใก) ํฌ๊ธฐ๋ก ๊ณ ๋ฌด 20t์ ๋ณด๊ดํ๊ณ ์๋ ๊ณณ์ด๋ค."
Key Vocabulary:
- ๊ธํธํ์ด์ดย (Geum-ho-ta-i-eo)ย โ Kumho Tire (company name)
- ๊ด์ฃผ๊ณต์ฅย (Gwang-ju-gong-jang)ย โ Gwangju factory
- ๊ณต์ฅ๋ย (gong-jang-dong)ย โ factory building / factory wing
- ์์ชฝย (seo-jjok)ย โ west / western side
- ๊ณ ๋ฌด์ ๋ จย (go-mu-jeong-ryeon)ย โ rubber refining / rubber processing
- ํ์ฌย (hwa-jae)ย โ fire (incident)
- ๋ฉด์ ย (myeon-jeok)ย โ area / surface area
- ๋ณด๊ดํ๋คย (bo-gwan-ha-da)ย โ to store / keep
- ์ฝย (yak)ย โ approximately / about
- ๋ฐ์ํ๋คย (bal-saeng-ha-da)ย โ to occur / to happen
Translation:
"A fire broke out around 7:11 a.m. on the 17th at the western rubber refining building of the Kumho Tire factory in Gwangju. The rubber refining building is about the size of a soccer field (approximately 7,000ใก) and stores 20 tons of rubber."
Keywords
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