Fires broke out seven minutes apart in two neighboring buildings in Seoul's Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam District, injuring 19 people. Police identified and arrested a man in his 70s as a suspect, treating arson as the likely cause. Both buildings housed patent law firms on the floors where the fires started, prompting police to investigate whether the blazes were part of a series of arson attacks.
According to fire authorities, the first fire broke out at about 11:54 a.m. on the 20th on the third floor of the Shinmyung Building in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam District. Eleven people were injured and taken to hospitals from the building, which has two basement levels and seven floors above ground. Two were seriously injured and nine suffered minor injuries. One of the seriously injured was transported in cardiac arrest but later regained the ability to breathe unaided. Sixty people in the building evacuated on their own.
Fire authorities issued a Level 1 response at about 12:04 p.m. amid concerns over a high number of casualties. A total of 291 personnel from the fire department, police and the district office, along with 56 pieces of equipment, were mobilized to fight the fire. The final search for victims was completed at about 1:22 p.m., and the fire was fully extinguished at about 2:20 p.m.
Seven minutes after the first fire, at about 12:01 p.m., a second fire broke out at the Hanyang Building, about 170 meters away in a straight line. The fire, which started on the fourth floor of the building with two basement levels and 10 floors above ground, injured eight people who were taken to hospitals. All were initially classified as having minor injuries, but the conditions of some patients worsened during transport, and the tally was revised to three serious and five minor injuries. The fire was fully extinguished at about 12:35 p.m.
Police, suspecting arson in both fires, identified a man in his 70s as a suspect and began tracking him. Seoul's Hyehwa Police Station arrested the man near Dongmyo Station at about 4:16 p.m. that day. The suspect is believed to have traveled on Subway Line 1 after the fires broke out.
Rescue efforts at the scene were urgent. When firefighters arrived at the Shinmyung Building, some people on the third floor were leaning out of windows waiting to be rescued. Firefighters attached ladders to a pump truck to bring them down. Some people smashed windows with golf clubs and other objects to escape. The two seriously injured victims were found near a third-floor corridor, and one of them was transported in cardiac arrest before breathing was restored.
A worker in their 50s on the third floor of the Hanyang Building, identified only as A, said they learned of the fire around noon when people nearby began making a commotion. "At first people were asking whether they should take their belongings or turn off their computers, but we soon realized it was a real fire," he said. The seriously injured at the Hanyang Building suffered severe breathing difficulty from smoke inhalation, burns or cuts from glass. Broken glass and blood stains believed to be from the injured remained at the scene.
Police are focusing on the fact that patent law firms occupied the floors where both fires began. At the Shinmyung Building, a patent law firm was located on the third floor where the fire started, while at the Hanyang Building, patent law firms occupied the third through fifth floors, including the fourth floor where the fire began. Investigators are examining whether the fires are linked, given that they broke out seven minutes apart and that the tenants on the floors of origin were in the same line of business. In the case of the Shinmyung Building, the suspect is believed to have attempted arson at an office in the same building in 2022, four years earlier, carrying flammable material, leading investigators to suspect that grievances against the patent law firm may have motivated the attacks.
Seoul's Suseo Police Station said it was investigating the consecutive fires at the two buildings on suspicion of arson. Fire authorities initially said no evidence had been found to support a link between the two fires, but in their final briefing said they were investigating whether the blazes were connected. Police plan to investigate the exact points of origin, the circumstances of the fires and whether they were set by the same person.
