An electric fault could have caused an overnight fire at the government building in downtown Seoul,
which was put out within half an hour without causing any casualties, investigators said Thursday.
The blaze started in two adjacent rooms on the fifth floor of the 19-story Central Government Building just after 12:30 a.m. Some 130 firefighters and 52 fire trucks were called to the scene and got the fire under control in about 30 minutes.
The 31 people in the building at the time of the fire fled to the rooftop and were able to leave safely after the heat and smoke subsided an hour later. Electricity to the building was cut off to prevent the fire from starting again.
The incident raised fears that it was another case of arson. Last week South Korea's 14th-century wooden and stone gate Sungnyemun, a 610-year-old artifact in downtown Seoul and one of South Korea's most treasured monuments, was ravaged by fire after a 70-year-old man, disgruntled by a land compensation deal with developers, poured paint thinner on it and set it ablaze with a cigarette lighter. The suspect was arrested a day later.
However, investigators said electric leaks or overheating were the likely cause of the fire, noting it took place in a tightly controlled building, which is off-limits to outsiders, and that no one was on the fifth floor at the time of the incident.
"An electric heater could have overheated and started the fire, as often happens in offices when people leave their electric heaters on," an investigator said.
Firefighters ruled out the possibility of arson because the two rooms where the blaze occurred were locked.
They said the fire alarm sounded but the sprinklers did not activate.
The origin of the fire was the Office for Government Policy Coordination, a supporting office for the prime minister that coordinates policies between the administration and the prime minister's office. (Yonhap)