On the afternoon of the 14th, firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a building in Sogong-dong, Jung District, Seoul. Yonhap News

Police and fire authorities have launched a joint on-site inspection to determine the cause of the fire that broke out at a capsule hotel in Jung District, Seoul, on the evening of the 14th.

According to Kyunghyang Shinmun reporting on the 15th, the Seoul Jungbu Fire Station and the Namdaemun Police Station have been conducting a joint inspection since 10 a.m. that day.

At around 6:10 p.m. the previous day, a fire at the capsule hotel left three foreigners seriously injured and seven with minor injuries. The blaze was fully extinguished at 9:35 p.m., about three hours later. The nationalities of the injured foreigners were identified as two from China, two from Japan, two from Germany, and one each from Norway·Germany·France·Poland. Among them, one Chinese man in his 50s, who had been transported to the hospital unconscious, has regained consciousness. The Japanese mother and daughter who suffered serious injuries are currently in the hospital.

The fire started at the capsule hotel on the third floor of a building with two basement levels and seven above-ground floors. The building operated lodging facilities on the 3rd and 6~7th floors. The 3rd and 6th floors were understood to be capsule-type hotels. The Jung District Office guided 85 of the 120 people who had reserved this hotel to four nearby hotels as temporary accommodation. The rest expressed their intention to arrange lodging on their own.

The fire authorities deployed 110 personnel and 31 pieces of equipment the previous day. In addition, 180 police officers, 20 from the Jung District Office, and 3 from the city gas company were mobilized.

A fire official said, “We are investigating the cause of the fire.”