# Bad Fire in Ulsan Apartment Building **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 10, 2020, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602 "2020-10-10T01:52:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/1 "2020-10-10T01:52:10Z")
[Some very spectacular photos.](https://www.fr24news.com/a/2020/10/huge-fire-engulfs-entire-33-story-building-in-south-korea.html) Ulsan is on the southeast coast of Korea. This could be very, very bad. The fire started on the 12 or so floor of an apartment building at about 23.00 hours. I hope everyone got out. It looks very bad indeed. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/2 "2020-10-10T01:56:36Z")
That is horrifying. It reminds me of that London apartment fire a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/3 "2020-10-10T02:01:25Z")
Right now apparently no deaths, but 80 in hospital for smoke inhalation (per BBC) (91 per CNN). Looks like it was the exterior burning and… [quote]Authorities said the fire department’s quick response was likely why there weren’t major casualties; firefighters arrived at the building five minutes after receiving the first call.[/quote] Per CNN. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/4 "2020-10-10T02:33:08Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > It reminds me of that London apartment fire a few years ago. Exactly what I thought. I see that this fire started twelve hours ago. We ought to be getting updates soon. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/5 "2020-10-10T03:07:24Z")
I saw that they were also able to get people off the roof. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/6 "2020-10-10T03:13:08Z")
Maybe I was wrong. It seems that the story is now well-developed, and nobody seems to have died. Certainly wonderful news. Still, those are some scary photos! ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/7 "2020-10-10T03:51:57Z")
I’ll bet that South Korea doesn’t let them build apartment buildings covered in a whole bunch of combustible cladding, combined with an insulation that was only supposed to be used with non-combustible cladding, along with an air gap between them that is perfect for creating a chimney or stack effect, allowing the fire to rush upward at incredible speeds. Add to that a waterproof cladding outside all of this, which prevents water from fire houses getting to the burning layers. That’s what happened at Grenfell Tower in London. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/8 "2020-10-10T05:21:04Z")
A few years ago, there was a major fire in a high-rise in Haeundae, Busan, South Korea. The cladding was the thing that spread the fire in that building. One of the after-effects of that incident, IIRC, was that building owners around the country were to ensure the cladding on their buildings was not the tinderbox the Haeundae building’s cladding was. If I have remembered correctly, the owner of the Ulsan building are in for a world of financial hurt. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/9 "2020-10-10T06:05:09Z")
Just by the way, see my new wiki-article on [manmade disasters in Korea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manmade_disasters_in_Korea) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/10 "2020-10-11T09:53:42Z")
Link goes to a “Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name” page. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-fire-in-ulsan-apartment-building/922602/11 "2020-10-11T13:09:14Z")
Somebody changed it to [List of man-made disasters in South Korea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_man-made_disasters_in_South_Korea). My intent was to cover all Korea, further “manmade” seems to be a perfectly crompulent word to me. But the list has many flaws. I published my sandbox draft. I appreciate comments and help.