Six killed in fire at luxury hotel construction site in South Korea

SEOUL – At least six people were killed and 25 others injured Friday in a fire at a construction site for a luxury hotel in Busan, a port city in southeastern South Korea, fire officials said.

Fire officials received the first report around 10:50 a.m. local time of a fire, which apparently broke out in the swimming pool area on the ground floor of the 12-story building, said Hong Moon-sik, the fire chief for Gijang County. The hotel is owned by a South Korean developer and was set to be managed by Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts upon completion, the hotel company said in a statement.

The fire spread quickly, and dark smoke billowed from the building by the time rescuers arrived, Hong told reporters. The six people who died were found unconscious in the pool area, where insulation material was on fire, creating black fumes that made it hard to evacuate, he said.

The injured people were found throughout the building, which has three basement levels in addition to the 12 stories, Hong said. Emergency workers used helicopters to rescue 14 people who were trapped on the roof, and about 100 people evacuated the building on their own, Hong said.

Fire officials said the blaze was under control by 1:30 p.m. and that hundreds of firefighters and more than 120 fire trucks had been deployed to the scene.

“The cause of the high number of casualties was that the fire had already spread by the time we arrived on the scene and black smoke had filled the inside,” Hong said outside the construction site. He added that the cause of the fire was under investigation.

An emergency alert sent shortly after the fire was reported instructed people to evacuate the hotel and avoid nearby roads.

Banyan Tree said in a statement that the fire had been extinguished, and that it was providing support to the hotel developer. The hotel, which was set to have 195 guest rooms, was scheduled to open this year, and construction was almost complete before the fire.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.