Fire on Seoul Subway Line 5 Forces 400 to Evacuate
- Doyoung Lim
- Jul 1
- 1 min read
July 1, 2025
Doyoung Lim
May 31, 2025 (Local Time)-Last Saturday, an elderly man set a fire on Subway Line 5 in Seoul, causing 400 passengers to evacuate to an underground tunnel. Even though approximately 20 passengers suffered injuries, such as smoke inhalation and fractures, every passenger evacuated safely.
On June 1, 2025, Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station announced that the man allegedly poured gasoline and set fire to pieces of clothes inside a subway Line 5 train between Yeouinaru and Mapo stations in the morning. He admitted that the arson was due to his dissatisfaction with the outcome of his divorce. After the arson, the police found that his hands were more severely burned than others, and he was arrested after admitting to the crime.
The non-combustible material used in a train was the major factor that prevented the spread of the fire. According to the Seoul Transportation Cooperation, every train was made with non-combustible material, such as stainless steel(a representative non-combustible material, maintaining its shape and enduring at high temperatures of 800 degrees Celsius), after the Daegu Subway Fire.
The quick response of passengers helped avoid a massive accident. As soon as the fire was flamed, they immediately evacuated to the safe train and called for the engineer. And some of them even took out fire extinguishers installed on the wall and directly put out the fire. Fortunately, the fire was put out within 2 hours after the arson.
