Seoul shantytown fire extinguished after nearly 13 hours: Report

SEOUL - A fire that broke out on Oct 27 in Guryong village, a shantytown in Seoul’s upmarket Gangnam district, affecting 77 households and 107 people, has been extinguished, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.Firefighters extinguished the fire after nearly 13 hours, with one woman suffering a minor leg injury, it added.Yonhap said people had evacuated to an emergency shelter.The National Fire Agency deployed 232 personnel and 110 pieces of equipment to fight the blaze, which began at about 3.50pm local time (2.50pm in Singapore) in a temporary structure, Yonhap said. It sent six helicopters to stop the fire from spreading to a nearby mountain.Guryong, often described as Seoul’s largest remaining shantytown, emerged in the 1970s and 1980s when families displaced by public works projects settled on the edge of Gangnam without permits. Its densely packed homes are built with flammable materials such as vinyl sheets and plywood.A major fire in the village in January forced hundreds of residents to evacuate. REUTERS