Seoul CNN —
Around 500 people were evacuated from their homes on Friday after a fire broke out in Guryong Village, one of the last remaining slums in South Korea’s capital Seoul, according to firefighters.
The fire broke out around 6:28 a.m. in the fourth ward of the village, Shin Yong-ho, an official with the Gangnam Fire Station, said in a televised briefing. First responders arrived about five minutes later, he said.
No deaths or injuries have been reported so far.
Around 60 houses are believed to have burned down, Shin said, adding that most of the buildings are made of vinyl plywood panels.
Videos on social media show the fire appearing to engulf rows of houses, with huge plumes of thick black smoke hanging over the slum while sirens wail nearby.
More than 800 emergency personnel have been mobilized, including firefighters, police officers and government employees, while 10 helicopters have been deployed to support the response, Shin said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, was briefed on the fire and has ordered authorities to mobilize “all available personnel and equipment,” according to the presidential office.
Yoon also urged local governments to evacuate residents and ensure the safety of rescue workers, his office said.
Authorities have long warned that Guryong residents are at particular risk of disaster, with the Gangnam government declaring on its website that the slum was “prone to fire” in 2019.
It was also hit hard by floods last August, when record rainfall killed at least 13 people in Seoul – including some residents trapped in the dingy “banjiha” basement houses depicted in the movie “Parasite.”
The Guryong slum has long been seen as a symbol of the gap between rich and poor in South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy. It’s part of the affluent, glitzy Gangnam neighborhood, made famous by Psy’s 2012 song “Gangnam Style,” and sometimes dubbed the Beverly Hills of Seoul.
Gangnam’s high-rise apartment buildings are less than a kilometer from Guryong’s barracks, where many residents live in cramped makeshift shelters made of materials such as wood and corrugated iron.
Although plans to redevelop the area date back at least a decade, numerous proposals have stalled due to disagreements between local government agencies and land compensation negotiations.
That effort is ongoing, with 406 households — more than a third of the slum population — having been relocated by 2019, according to the Gangnam government website. More than 1,000 residents still live there, Gangnam officials confirmed on Friday.
The district announced further redevelopment plans last May, with a local official saying the land would be transformed into “an eco-friendly luxury residential complex”.
Authorities are working to relocate about 1,500 households living in shacks in three major slums, including Guryong, to social housing instead, the Seoul government said in a news release last November.
It added that the city aims to “eliminate abnormal dwellings such as cabins and vinyl homes.”