Fire kills seven workers in Daejeon outlet mall basement

Smoke comes out of the Hyundai Premium Outlet building in Yuseong District, Daejeon, Monday. [NEWS1]

Seven workers were killed and one was critically injured in a fire that swept through the basement of the Hyundai Premium Outlet in Yuseong District, Daejeon, on Monday.

Two workers were found dead Monday morning, while one was moved to a hospital with critical injuries before dying. Four more workers were found dead throughout the day, and one was found injured and moved to a hospital. There were no customers at the shopping mall at the time.

The fire was first reported at 7:45 a.m. Monday and the Daejeon Fire Department issued a level 2 response at 7:48, dispatching 20 fire trucks and 126 firefighters to the scene.

Accessing the basement was difficult due to stacks of paper boxes that caught fire near a loading dock.

The seven casualties included a man in his 50s, a man in his 40s and another in his 30s. Details of the other four casualties were not released.

The Daejeon Fire Department said that after looking into whether the fire was caused by an explosion from an electric vehicle that was being charged at a parking lot in the basement of the shopping mall, it was determined that such an explosion was not the cause of the fire.

The first witness described smoke suddenly billowing from the basement and said a loud ticking noise could be heard from the direction of the smoke, according to the fire department.

Other than the seven workers, there were no customers in the mall because it was before opening hours. Around 110 people, including employees and guests, were evacuated from a nearby hotel.

“We have extinguished most of the fire and smoke from the east end of the basement parking lot of Hyundai Premium Outlet,” said an official from the Daejeon Fire Department. “We are working to also put out the fire from the west area of the building.” It was reported that the fire was extinguished around 1:10 pm, but there was still a lot of smoke.

The Hyundai Department Store Group said it had formed an emergency response team led by management, which went to the site in Daejeon.

Chung Ji-sun, chairman of Hyundai Department Store Group, visited the site around 4 p.m. Monday and gave an apology in the presence of reporters.

"I feel a heavy sense of responsibility," said Chung. "We offer our deepest condolences and apologies to the deceased and their bereaved families. Our company will cooperate with relevant authorities as much as possible to resolve this incident and find out the exact cause, and will not evade any responsibility."

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]