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Incheon hotel fire injures 54, two of them severely

Published: 18 Dec. 2023, 10:44 Updated: 18 Dec. 2023, 11:52

LEE SOO-JUNG
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People jump from the Grand Palace Hotel's rooftop to escape from fire by landing on the rooftop of a nearby building. [YONHAP]

A fire at a hotel in Incheon severely wounded two and injured 52 others on Sunday, fire authorities said.

The fire started around 9:01 p.m. at an 18-story parking tower connected to the main building of the hotel, Grand Palace Hotel, in Incheon's Namdong District.

The fire was put down around 10:30 p.m.

A man in his 20s is reportedly suffering from severe fractures after falling from the hotel, and a woman in her 30s was taken to hospital due to second-degree burns all over her body.

Other 52 were sent to hospitals for smoke inhalation and other injuries.

First responders rescued 44 at the scene, and 100 managed to leave the site by themselves or with the help of firefighters.

Some jumped from the hotel's rooftop to land on a nearby building's rooftop, a video showed.

Firefighters extinguish a fire that broke out at a hotel in Incheon on Sunday. [YONHAP]

Firefighters arrived at the site five minutes after the report, with hundreds of firefighters and dozens of extinguishing equipment.

The authority saw that parked vehicles inside the parking tower caught fire and worsened the fire.

"As the cars were burnt down, the fire spread with the ascending air current within the parking space," Park In-sik, an official in charge of field response at the Incheon Gongdan Fire Station, said.

The authorities are looking into what caused the fire.