Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Overheated cooking oil sparked Homeplus fire: Busan officials
Passersby saw smoke billowing from the Homeplus building in Busan at 4:49 p.m. Tuesday. Five hundred people had to be evacuated. Photo from Instagram
By Lee Gyu-lee
By Lee Gyu-lee
Overheated cooking oil at a Chinese restaurant caused
the fire at the Homeplus outlet in Gaya-dong, Busan,
on Tuesday, according to fire officials.
About 500 people were evacuated when the blaze began about 4:49 p.m. It took 20 minutes to extinguish it. No one was injured in the incident.
Busan Metropolitan City Fire Disaster Headquarters and police began an investigation of the fire's cause on Wednesday. They discovered that it started in the Chinese restaurant on the fourth floor. The chef left boiling oil unattended and it overheated. The duct near the stove caught fire and smoke soon spread to an adjacent cafe, officials said.
The damage is estimated at over 3.2 million won.
The restaurant's burnt ceiling, and the cooking oil that caused the fire. Courtesy of Busan Metropolitan City Fire Disaster Headquarters