Over 30 Evacuated... Ticketing Disrupted at Station Counters Due to System Failure
Trains Operating Normally
Following City Hall Station Reverse Running Incident, Citizens Express Anxiety
A fire that broke out in a building near Seoul Station on the morning of the 6th was extinguished after about 3 hours and 30 minutes. The fire caused about 30 people to evacuate and disrupted traffic in the surrounding area, leading to confusion on the weekend morning.
On the morning of the 6th, firefighters dispatched to the Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) Seoul Headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, where a fire broke out in the underground computer room, are conducting extinguishing operations. [Image source=Yonhap News]
According to the fire authorities and Korail, at around 9:40 a.m. that day, an unknown cause fire broke out on the 4th floor, where the IT operations office is located, in the Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) Seoul Headquarters building in Dongja-dong, Yongsan-gu. The fire department arrived at the scene around 9:45 a.m. after receiving the report and mobilized 46 vehicles and 177 personnel to carry out firefighting operations. The fire spread up to the 8th floor through ducts (pipes), and the major flames were controlled at 11:03 a.m., about 1 hour and 20 minutes after the outbreak. The fire was completely suppressed at 1:10 p.m., about 2 hours later.
At the time of the fire, about 20 employees responsible for railway transportation tasks and about 10 IT operations personnel were in the building and quickly evacuated on their own, resulting in no casualties. Among them, two people inhaled smoke and were treated on site. The initial ignition point was first reported as the basement computer room, then corrected once to the 3rd floor, and finally confirmed to be the 4th floor.
As a result of the fire, the road from Cheongpa-ro Sookdaeipgu Station intersection to Seoul Station West intersection was temporarily fully closed but traffic was gradually resumed. The Korail Seoul Headquarters building is located right next to Seoul Station, which has a large floating population. At one point, black smoke spread around Seoul Station in the heart of downtown Seoul, causing concern among citizens.
According to Korail, a computer system failure occurred, causing ticket inquiry, issuance, and refund operations at some train station counters nationwide to not function properly. However, all trains are operating normally.
Korail stated, "After the fire was extinguished, we are conducting computer system recovery and inspection work," and added, "We will check the damage details by sector and establish temporary and full recovery plans according to the damage situation." They also said, "Korail Talk, Korail website, onboard crew ticketing system, and ticket counters and automatic ticket machines at Seoul, Iksan, Gwangju Songjeong, and Jeongeup stations are operating normally," and added, "Use of the Korail customer center phone will be possible after the computer system is restored."
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