3 FIREFIGHTERS FOUND DEAD

[Anchor Lead]

Three firefighters have perished at the site of a massive fire at a logistics center in Pyeongtaek. They entered the facility to search for people who might have been trapped inside, but they never made it back safely as the flames began to spread again.

[Pkg]

A fire broke out at a construction site of a logistics center in Pyeongtaek. The fire is estimated to have first sparked around 11:40 p.m. Wednesday evening. The flames first began on the first floor. Workers who were at the scene reported the blaze to the 119 rescue service. The local fire station immediately issued a Level 1 disaster response. About seven hours later, large flames had been contained. At 7:10 a.m. the following day, the Level 1 disaster response was lifted. Some 40 firefighters were dispatched to the scene to search for workers who might have been trapped inside. But the flames began to spread again on the second floor of the building where five firefighters were at the time. They halted their search operations and began to extinguish the blaze again.

[Soundbite] Ko Byung-man(Songtan Fire Station) : "The firefighters entered the building to look for trapped workers, but they found burning flames there and had to extinguish them simultaneously."

The inferno spread to the urethane foam surrounding the walls and then covered the entire building. Moments later, they lost contact with all five firefighters on site.

[Soundbite] (Local resident) : "At half past 9 o'clock, smoke began rising all of a sudden."

In about half an hour, two of the firefighters managed to escape, but the remaining three were still unaccounted for. At 12:40 p.m. the day after the initial fire broke out, rescue workers eventually found them dead. This seven-storey logistics center was the site of another disaster back in Dec. 2020, when the structure collapsed, killing three workers and injuring two others.