Outlet Mall Fire in Daejeon Leaves 7 People Dead
There was a horrible fire yesterday in Daejeon that unfortunately caused seven people to be killed:
The death toll from an outlet mall fire in the central city of Daejeon has risen to seven, with one person under medical treatment after sustaining serious injuries, officials said Monday.
The blaze at Hyundai Premium Outlet in Daejeon, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul, is believed to have started from the basement parking lot at 7:45 a.m. and spread quickly on cardboard boxes, sending dark smoke filling the entire floor, according to witnesses and survivors. The fire was completely extinguished around 3 p.m.
Two men, one in his 50s and the other in his 30s, were found with serious injuries and sent to a hospital but were later pronounced dead in the morning. Five more people were later found dead while another person was sent to a hospital after sustaining serious injuries, according to the officials.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Tragic.
Maybe from a parked EV with a battery problem…
So I was there yesterday and here is what I observed.
The layout is a south wing, a courtyard, and a north wing. The south wing may be open air shops facing the courtyard with their back wall facing the south parking lot. The north wing is a fully enclosed mall.
At least four levels of parking garage extends under it all.
The fire is rumored to have started on B4. I observed fire coming out of most of the openings in the south wall of the south wing, indicating the fire came up through many levels of basement and burned, at least, the first floor.
I saw no fire in the mall side (north wing). It is air-gapped from the south wing via the courtyard (and maybe some narrow walkways)
However, it appears much smoke came up the elevator shafts and stairwells and such, from the basement to the north wing enclosed mall.
I didn’t go to the north side until much later but I saw a great deal of smoke (but not fire) damage on the entrances of the north side.
It appears there is serious smoke damage to everything inside.
I did not go into the courtyard or see the condition of the south-wing shops.
The Hyundai Premium Outlet is going to be closed for quite a while, if it even opens again.
Korea is going to pass some knee-jerk laws regulating cardboard storage and exits and things.
If it turns out to have been started by an elecreic car, there will be a hard look at that.
This is a pretty terrible thing for everyone involved.
Most likely EV fire, but that will be covered up.