On the 18th, the Fire Department reported that the main fire at the Kumho Tire Gwangju plant was contained on the second day of the incident.
The fire authority announced that as of 2:50 p.m. that day, the initial extinguishment of the fire was completed, about 31 hours and 40 minutes after it occurred at 7:11 a.m. the previous day.
According to authorities, the current extinguishment rate is at 90 to 95 percent. It is expected that the extinguishment will be completed within about 1 hour and 30 minutes from the time of containing the main fire.
Accordingly, the response system, which had escalated to a national fire mobilization order, has been downgraded to level one. Level one response is an alarm for the full deployment of personnel from the jurisdictional fire department. Thirty minutes after the initial extinguishment ended, at 3:10 p.m., the national fire mobilization order was lifted.
It has been tentatively identified that about 50 to 60 percent of the second plant (western plant) at the Kumho Tire Gwangju plant was lost in this fire.
The fire reportedly started when an unidentified spark ignited from an industrial oven device used to preheat raw rubber in the second processing refining process.
Kumho Tire has completely halted production at the Gwangju plant, and currently, 132 residents from 71 households in the adjacent four apartment complexes are living in a shelter set up at Gwangju Women's University gymnasium.