Firefighters battle to put out the blaze at a logistics center run by Coupang in Incheon, west of Seoul, for the third day, Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

As firefighters continued the third day of their battle to contain a massive blaze at Coupang’s logistics center in Incheon, the incident exposes deeper structural weaknesses of warehouses that can turn a single spark into a prolonged, hard-to-control inferno.

The fire broke out early Saturday morning on the sixth floor of the eight-story facility — one of the company’s largest distribution centers — located in Seohae District. All on-site workers evacuated safely and no fatalities were reported.

At 8 p.m. Monday, fire authorities said the main blaze was brought under control, roughly 61 hours after it started. Crews were still working to extinguish remaining hotspots.

The prolonged battle drew comparisons to previous warehouse disasters, including a 2021 fire that burned for nearly six days at Coupang’s Deokpyeong center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, and a 2022 fire at a cold storage facility in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, which took more than 19 hours to extinguish and claimed the lives of three firefighters. According to fire safety experts, logistics centers — due to their distinct structural vulnerabilities and dense layouts — are fundamentally prone to intense pockets of fire that can burn persistently for hours or even days once they start.

Firetrucks line up outside a Coupang logistics center in Seohae District, Incheon, Monday, as firefighters enter their third day battling a blaze that has yet to be fully contained. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

“Logistics centers are, by design, very wide, very tall and very open … It is inherently difficult to control once a fire breaks out,” Lee Yong‑jae, a professor of fire protection at Kyungmin University, told The Korea Times.

What makes these fires particularly challenging to contain, Lee said, is that typical sprinkler and detection systems are poorly matched to the sheer height and multitiered rack layout of today’s logistics spaces, leaving burning goods buried deep inside stacked boxes, beyond the effective reach of water.

“Even on one floor, the ceiling height can be 10 meters, with goods stacked on shelf-like racks all the way up. So even if the sprinklers at the very top detect the fire, activate and start spraying water, it’s structurally very difficult for that water to efficiently reach and hit the actual burning materials,” he said.

Firefighters battle to put out the blaze at a logistics center run by Coupang in Incheon, west of Seoul, for the third day, Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Modern logistics centers are also largely automated environments filled with conveyor belts, sorting machines, autonomous robots and extensive charging stations, all powered by dense networks of cabling and control panels.

“Electricity is everywhere in these environments, running almost nonstop,” Lee added.

To better prevent and respond more effectively to warehouse fires, experts say the government should push to redesign logistics centers with stronger structural safety and revise related regulations to match the realities of today’s high-density storage and automation.

A person carrying an umbrella walks past Sinseok Elementary School in Incheon, near the Coupang fire site, Monday. The school temporarily closed on the day as smoke from the fire covered the sky in the region. Newsis

In Incheon, despite rainfall, it took nearly days for firefighters to bring the main fire under control.

On Sunday, district authorities issued an evacuation order for residents living within a 116-meter radius of the logistics center’s ramp area, citing a risk of structural collapse.

As the firefighting operation dragged on, fire officials installed collapse warning devices at three key points throughout the building to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

"Once the fire is fully extinguished, the National Fire Agency, the National Fire Research Institute and the Korea Electrical Safety Corp. are expected to form a joint investigation team to determine the cause of the blaze and assess the exact extent of the damage," an official said.