Firefighters have brought the main blaze under control at a warehouse in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, about five-and-a-half hours after it broke out.


According to fire authorities, all of the 178 people evacuated the warehouse on their own, and no casualties have been reported thus far, after flames erupted around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

One of the workers who was inside the warehouse told KBS that while the alarm had gone off, there was no broadcast informing people inside to evacuate nor operation of sprinklers.

The three-story building, with an underground level, reportedly comprises about about 80-thousand square meters in total floor area and there were around eight tons of lithium ion battery stored on the third floor at the time the fire started.

Authorities suspect the fire likely broke out on the third floor.

A Level Two fire response alert was issued at 10:44 a.m. and downgraded to Level One around 1:20 p.m., before being lifted at about 4:05 p.m.