A fire at the National Hangeul Museum in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, was initially extinguished after 4 hours. The 3rd and 4th floors of the museum were completely burned, but there were no reported injuries or damage to cultural properties.
According to the fire authorities on the 1st, a fire broke out around 8:40 a.m. in the 3rd-floor exhibition hall of the museum building. The fire authorities issued a stage 1 response 50 minutes after the fire broke out, deploying 76 pieces of equipment and 262 personnel, successfully controlling the fire around 12:31 p.m.
Since the museum was closed for expansion work, there were no injuries to visitors. Two workers inside the museum were rescued, while the remaining four evacuated. However, one firefighter who entered the museum to extinguish the fire fell 2 meters and was injured by falling rebar, requiring transport to the hospital. It is reported that the firefighter's life is not in danger.
There was no damage to the museum's collections. Due to the ongoing expansion work, artifacts were being stored separately in the depot, and after the fire occurred, 257 nationally designated cultural assets, including the Worinseokbo and letters from King Jeongjo, were moved to the nearby National Museum of Korea.
The fire originated in the 3rd-floor exhibition hall of the building where expansion work was underway. The fire authorities suspect that sparks from welding work to cut rebar at the construction site caused the fire and are investigating the exact cause.
The fire that started on the 3rd floor spread to the 4th floor. The fire authorities faced challenges in controlling the flames due to materials stacked on the 4th floor. The fire authorities noted, "There are many flammable materials on the floor of the building, so we must carefully remove them while monitoring for embers," adding that "it will take a long time to fully extinguish the fire." They mentioned that, "As of now, the sprinkler system has been determined to be non-operational."
The National Hangeul Museum, which opened in 2014, houses over 89,000 materials related to Hangeul. Among these, nine items, including the Worinseokbo and the Jeongjo's Hangeul writing notebook, are designated as treasures, and four items, including the Samganghaengsildo, are designated as regional important cultural heritage.