▲ Fire at Coupang Logistics Center in Incheon
Another major fire at a Coupang logistics center, occurring five years after a previous incident, has sparked criticism that the fire vulnerabilities of large-scale logistics facilities remain glaringly apparent.
According to the Incheon Fire Department on July 21, the fire broke out at the Coupang Incheon 32 Logistics Center in Seo-gu at 6:54 a.m. on July 18 and was brought under initial control at 8:00 p.m. on July 20, taking 61 hours.
This marks the longest duration for a fire at a domestic logistics center, surpassing the 55 hours it took to bring the June 2021 fire at Coupang's Deokpyeong Logistics Center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, under control.
A commonality between the two fires at Coupang logistics centers is that large quantities of combustible materials, such as cardboard boxes, were stored on-site, causing the flames to spread rapidly and making it difficult for firefighters to access the scene.
Furthermore, the mezzanine structure, which adds intermediate floors inside the building to increase storage space, complicated movement and acted as an obstacle to firefighting operations.
Despite the deployment of large-scale firefighting personnel and equipment, the fire, which had taken hold deep within the densely stacked goods, was difficult to extinguish as operations remained focused on external water discharge.
While the cause of this fire has not yet been confirmed, criticism regarding insufficient preventive measures is inevitable given that a major fire has occurred at a Coupang logistics center again after five years.
During the fire five years ago [sic], it was revealed that staff in the disaster prevention room had judged the alarm to be a malfunction without checking the site, resetting the fire prevention system six times and delaying the activation of the sprinklers.
In the case of the Incheon logistics center, it has been confirmed that the sprinklers did operate, but the specific timing of their activation and their effectiveness will be determined through a joint investigation.
Although the National Fire Safety Code (NFTC 609) for warehouse facilities was strengthened in 2024 to reflect the characteristics of logistics warehouse fires, the Incheon logistics center, which received its building permit in 2020, was not subject to these regulations.
The core of the strengthened standards includes mandatory installation of large-drop sprinklers, which have a higher water discharge rate than standard types, and the additional installation of sprinkler heads for every 3 meters of shelf height in rack-supported warehouses.
Although the flames did not spread to the fifth floor of the Incheon logistics center, the presence of hundreds of robots equipped with lithium batteries—equivalent to the capacity of 20 electric vehicles—has raised the need for a potential risk management system.
Park Gyeong-hwan, president of the Korea Fire Engineers Association, suggested, "Large logistics centers are structured in a way that, literally, the fire must burn everything before it ends." He added, "Stricter safety standards must be applied to compensate for these vulnerabilities."
He continued, "It is necessary to thoroughly examine how fire compartment operation standards and mezzanine structures affected the fire," and added, "Efforts to improve facilities with the highest quality and performance must also accompany these measures."
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