Morning Wake-Up Sounds of Explosions... Despair in Mukho Market 4 Years After Previous Fire

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A fire broke out at Mukho Market in Donghae, Gangwon Province, this morning (August 4). Fortunately, the fire was extinguished with no casualties, but merchants who had been looking forward to the peak summer vacation season were left devastated.

Reporter Mo Jae-sung from G1 Broadcasting has the story.

[Reporter]

Smoke begins to rise from a shop early in the morning, and flames soon spread.

Residents rush in with fire extinguishers to attempt to put out the flames.

Firefighters spray water, but the fire quickly spreads to neighboring areas.

The fire broke out at a dried seafood shop inside Mukho Market in Donghae at around 6:11 a.m. today.

Fire authorities issued a Level 1 response and completely extinguished the fire in about two hours and forty minutes.

Some merchants were sleeping inside their shops, but fortunately, they evacuated quickly, resulting in no casualties.

The fire completely destroyed five stores and partially damaged two others.

The cause of the fire is presumed to be electrical.

[Affected Merchant: I sleep on the second floor here. While I was sleeping, I suddenly heard electrical popping sounds outside. I heard electrical popping sounds about seven or eight times, sounding like gunshots, "bang, bang, bang."]br>
Struck by a sudden fire during the peak vacation season, the merchants are in utter despair.

[Hwang Jung-ah / Affected Merchant: We usually target the peak season from late July to early August, and sales during this time account for almost half of the entire year. Now that we can't do business, we have nowhere to vent this frustrating and heartbreaking feeling.]

Traditional markets are structurally vulnerable to fires.

As the heatwave continues, the concerns of merchants who witnessed the fire are even greater.

[Kim Jung-hee / Mukho Market Merchant: Another incident like this happened again after four years. We are really scared because things keep happening. In our case, we were supposed to open our stores today, but we all had to close down.]br>
Donghae City plans to consider providing support for merchants to resume business once on-site investigations are completed and to strengthen safety management at the market.

(Video coverage: Shin Ik-gyun / G1, Footage provided by: Donghae City & Gangwon State Fire Headquarters)

Mo Jae-sung, G1
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.