Firefighters battle flames in Guryong village, Seoul’s largest informal settlement, after a blaze ripped through makeshift homes in the hillside shantytown on January 16, 2026. PICS/AFP
With smoke billowing over makeshift homes emergency crews work for over six and a half hours to bring a major fire under control, forcing residents to flee their homes. (PIC/PTI)
More than 1,200 firefighters and police officers were deployed to the scene as flames tore through the combustible, closely built homes of Seoul’s last-remaining shanty towns
Fire personnel search through the charred remains of houses in Guryong village to check for possible victims following the blaze that displaced hundreds of residents
The village was formed in the 1980s as a settlement for hundreds and thousands of people who were evicted from their original neighbourhoods under massive house clearings, city beautification for foreign visitors and redevelopment projects ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games
The hillside village has occasionally had fires over the years, a vulnerability that observers say is linked to its tightly packed homes built with materials that easily burn
Over 250 residents were evacuated after the fire destroyed sections of the impoverished settlement located beside some of Seoul’s most expensive neighbourhoods showing stark income inequality
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