๐Ÿ”ฅ Massive Fire at Kumho Tire Gwangju Factory: Black Smoke Blankets City

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 70โ€“75% roughly 14 hours after the fire broke out early Saturday morning.

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 tiresโ€”estimated to be the size of one and a half football fields.


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 Orderโ€”the 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.


    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 โ€œConcernโ€ 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.


    The Gwangju facility is divided into two major zones:

    • 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 sectionโ€”a 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.

    The second day after the fire at Kumho Tire's Gwangju plant

    According to the Gwangju Fire Department, on the 18th, as of 8:30 AM on that day, the fire extinguishment rate at the Kumho Tire Gwangju plant was 85%.

    ๐Ÿ“š Learn Korean Through This News

    Korean Text:

    "17์ผ ์˜ค์ „ 7์‹œ 11๋ถ„์ฏค ๊ธˆํ˜ธํƒ€์ด์–ด ๊ด‘์ฃผ๊ณต์žฅ ๋‚ด ์„œ์ชฝ ๊ณ ๋ฌด์ •๋ จ ๊ณต์žฅ๋™์—์„œ ํ™”์žฌ ๋ฐœ์ƒํ–ˆ๋‹ค. ๊ณ ๋ฌด์ •๋ จ ๊ณต์žฅ๋™์€ ์ถ•๊ตฌ์žฅ 1๊ฐœ ๋ฉด์ (์•ฝ 7000ใŽก) ํฌ๊ธฐ๋กœ ๊ณ ๋ฌด 20t์„ ๋ณด๊ด€ํ•˜๊ณ  ์žˆ๋Š” ๊ณณ์ด๋‹ค."

    Key Vocabulary:

    • ๊ธˆํ˜ธํƒ€์ด์–ดย (Geum-ho-ta-i-eo)ย โ€“ Kumho Tire (company name)
    • ๊ด‘์ฃผ๊ณต์žฅย (Gwang-ju-gong-jang)ย โ€“ Gwangju factory
    • ๊ณต์žฅ๋™ย (gong-jang-dong)ย โ€“ factory building / factory wing
    • ์„œ์ชฝย (seo-jjok)ย โ€“ west / western side
    • ๊ณ ๋ฌด์ •๋ จย (go-mu-jeong-ryeon)ย โ€“ rubber refining / rubber processing
    • ํ™”์žฌย (hwa-jae)ย โ€“ fire (incident)
    • ๋ฉด์ ย (myeon-jeok)ย โ€“ area / surface area
    • ๋ณด๊ด€ํ•˜๋‹คย (bo-gwan-ha-da)ย โ€“ to store / keep
    • ์•ฝย (yak)ย โ€“ approximately / about
    • ๋ฐœ์ƒํ•˜๋‹คย (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 7,000ใŽก) and stores 20 tons of rubber."


    References: yonhap news, kbs news, mbc news, donga news, chosun news

    Keywords

    ๊ธˆํ˜ธํƒ€์ด์–ด ํ™”์žฌ, ๊ธˆํ˜ธํƒ€์ด์–ด ๊ด‘์ฃผ ํ™”์žฌ,ย Kumho Tire Gwangju fire, Gwangju factory fire update, Kumho Tire explosion Korea, rubber factory fire Gwangju, South Korea industrial fire news, Gwangju emergency evacuation, Kumho Tire production halt, factory fire black smoke Korea, fire at tire manufacturing plant, Korean factory fire May 2025, chemical accident Gwangju, environmental alert Kumho fire

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