SEOUL, July 20 (AJP) - Fast delivery has long been at the core of Coupang's identity, helping transform South Korea into a republic of logistics.
But a fire that was still burning Monday afternoon, more than 55 hours after breaking out at the company's state-of-the-art fulfillment center in Incheon, west of Seoul, underscored a new challenge facing increasingly automated warehouses - the costly trade-off between efficiency and the safety risks posed by lithium-powered robotics.
The blaze broke out at about 6:54 a.m. on July 18 on the sixth floor of Coupang's No. 32 fulfillment center in Incheon's Seo District. It spread from the section to the right of the building's vehicle ramp to the seventh floor before extending to the left side of the sixth floor.
Heo Seok-kyung, chief of the Incheon Seobu Fire Station, told reporters Monday that hundreds of lithium-powered logistics robots — containing roughly the same amount of battery material as about 20 electric vehicles — are stationed on the fifth floor, which has so far escaped the fire.
If the flames reach that floor, he warned, they could spread rapidly throughout the building.
Firefighters entered the fifth floor in an effort to halt the blaze while deploying 31 pieces of specialized equipment, including aerial ladder trucks. Thermal-imaging drones monitored heat accumulation in real time, directing crews to the hottest areas inside the warehouse.
Authorities have maintained a nationwide firefighting mobilization order since Saturday afternoon, drawing personnel from eight provinces. As of Monday, 812 firefighters and police officers supported by 231 pieces of equipment had been deployed, up from 575 personnel when the fire was first reported.
After initial attempts to battle the fire from inside were thwarted by extreme heat and poor visibility, firefighters began breaking through the building's exterior walls with excavators to vent smoke and create access points. Rain over Incheon provided little assistance because it could not penetrate deep into the warehouse.
No deaths or civilian injuries have been reported. Two firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation and exhaustion.
Of the facility's 2,195 workers, 121 were on duty when the fire broke out and evacuated safely on their own.
Authorities issued an evacuation order Sunday night covering a 116-meter radius around the warehouse amid concerns that part of the building could collapse. After consulting structural engineers, however, officials decided to continue firefighting operations while installing monitoring sensors that would automatically warn crews of signs of structural failure.
Nearby schools and childcare centers were advised to close Monday, while 168 residents stayed at two temporary shelters because of smoke and falling debris.
The warehouse spans roughly 299,000 square meters across eight above-ground floors and one basement level, more than double the floor area of the facility involved in Coupang's previous major warehouse fire. Dense three-tier shelving and large quantities of paper and plastic packaging have made the blaze especially difficult to contain.
Coupang said it does not expect significant disruption to its nationwide delivery network because most products stored in Incheon are also stocked elsewhere. Orders for items primarily stored at the site have been canceled and refunded.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, and authorities have yet to estimate the financial damage. Once the blaze is extinguished, fire officials will launch a joint investigation with the National Fire Research Institute and the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation to determine the cause, including whether fire detection and sprinkler systems functioned properly, whether fire compartments effectively contained the flames, and whether safety improvements introduced after Coupang's previous warehouse fire were fully implemented.
The Incheon fire is the second major blaze at a Coupang logistics center since 2021, when a fire at the company's Deokpyeong facility in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, burned for six days and claimed the life of a firefighter. Investigators later found that the warehouse's sprinkler system failed to activate for about eight minutes after the fire started. Coupang reopened the rebuilt facility only in 2025.
The current fire is larger by most measures. More than 800 emergency personnel have been mobilized, compared with roughly 150 during the initial response to the 2021 blaze. While the Deokpyeong fire was largely contained within hours despite taking days to extinguish completely, the Incheon blaze remained uncontrolled more than 55 hours after it began.
It remains too early to compare the overall severity of the two incidents because the Incheon fire is still active and investigators have not determined its cause.
Rapid Expansion, Recurring Safety Complaints
The disaster comes after years of rapid, capital-intensive expansion of Coupang's logistics network.
The company has built 96 logistics facilities across 30 regions nationwide since its founding, investing more than 6.2 trillion won ($4.5 billion) and committing another 3 trillion won through 2026. Total warehouse floor space expanded from about 2.31 million square meters at the end of 2020 to 3.71 million square meters by the third quarter of 2022, an increase of nearly 60 percent in less than two years.
Its fulfillment workforce reached roughly 46,000 in 2023, while employment at non-Seoul logistics centers increased from 15,000 workers in September 2024 to more than 17,000 by March this year.
Ten workers died at Coupang logistics facilities between 2020 and 2022. A 2021 parliamentary review found that fire inspectors cited 139 of 268 logistics warehouses nationwide for fire-safety deficiencies, underscoring broader concerns across the industry.
In December 2025, prosecutors received a criminal complaint alleging that Coupang founder and Executive Chairman Kim Bom-suk instructed a former executive to withhold records related to the 2020 death of warehouse worker Jang Deok-jun in an attempt to obstruct a workers' compensation investigation. Coupang has not publicly addressed the allegation in detail.
The fire also comes amid mounting labor tensions.
The Coupang Fulfillment Center branch of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union has scheduled two strikes for Aug. 1 and Aug. 15 after members voted overwhelmingly in favor of industrial action.
The union is demanding guaranteed rest breaks during heat waves, expanded cooling facilities and permission for workers to carry mobile phones inside warehouses — a pledge Coupang made during a National Assembly hearing but has yet to implement.
Although the branch has only about 200 members among roughly 78,000 fulfillment workers, labor unrest has continued. A strike in August 2023 drew just three participants.
Separately, delivery drivers affiliated with the Korea Truckers' Solidarity Union in Gangwon Province staged a warning strike in June after Coupang introduced overnight deliveries in Chuncheon and Wonju. According to the union, 22 of 23 surveyed drivers reported lower daytime delivery volumes after the change, while the company proposed cutting per-package delivery fees by 122 won.
National labor federations also organized one-day strikes in January calling for tighter restrictions on overnight delivery shifts and stronger government oversight of the company.
Scandals in Korea and lobbying in Washington
Coupang is also still dealing with the fallout from a massive data breach disclosed last November.
A former employee used an unrevoked cryptographic key to access customer information between April and November 2025, affecting roughly 37.5 million people — including 33.2 million member accounts and at least 4.3 million non-members whose information appeared in delivery records.
Regulators concluded the breach stemmed from basic failures in access-key management rather than a sophisticated cyberattack.
In June, authorities imposed a record 624.68 billion won ($450 million) fine, the largest privacy-related penalty in Korean history. Kim did not issue a personal apology until about one month after the breach became public.
Coupang plans to challenge the decision and will recognize the penalty as an operating expense in its second-quarter earnings. Fire-related costs, meanwhile, are expected to appear in third-quarter results.
Coupang generates more than 90 percent of its revenue in South Korea but is controlled by Coupang Inc., a Delaware-incorporated parent listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a structure that has long drawn scrutiny over how profits are transferred overseas.
The National Tax Service launched an investigation in December 2025, deploying roughly 150 investigators, including specialists in international transactions. The probe began with Coupang Fulfillment Services and has expanded to examine transfer-pricing practices between the Korean operation and its U.S. parent.
For years, Kim largely avoided direct legal responsibility for workplace accidents because he did not serve as chief executive or registered representative director of Coupang's Korean operating entity, leaving his status under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act uncertain.
In April, however, the Fair Trade Commission designated Kim as Coupang's "same person," formally recognizing him as the conglomerate's controlling figure.
A Seoul court temporarily suspended that designation on July 14 while considering Coupang's legal challenge, leaving its legal status unresolved.
Whether the designation ultimately carries implications for the Incheon fire or previous workplace fatalities remains an open question. At a rally outside Coupang's Seoul headquarters in February, the mother of a worker who died on the job publicly called for Kim's prosecution.
The crises have coincided with Coupang's weakest earnings performance in years.
The company posted an operating loss of 354.5 billion won ($242 million) for the first quarter of 2026, its largest quarterly loss since late 2021, even as revenue increased 8 percent to $8.5 billion. The quarter marked Coupang's slowest revenue growth since its 2021 New York listing.
Net loss widened to 389.7 billion won, while active customers declined by 700,000 from the previous quarter to 23.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA fell 35 percent from a year earlier, largely because of customer compensation and other costs related to the data breach.
Coupang expects second-quarter revenue growth of 9 to 10 percent at constant exchange rates while warning that margins will remain under pressure.
Second-quarter earnings are expected in early August. Fire-related losses are unlikely to appear until third-quarter results, with potential damage estimates ranging from tens of billions of won to several hundred billion won.
Investigators have yet to determine what caused the Incheon fire or whether any failures by Coupang or its contractors contributed to the blaze.
Even so, the incident comes as the company faces a convergence of challenges — from a record privacy fine and a tax investigation to labor disputes and renewed scrutiny over workplace safety.
Firefighters remained at the scene Monday under the nationwide mobilization order with no confirmed timetable for bringing the fire fully under control.
Coupang said it is cooperating with investigators while providing relief supplies to firefighters and nearby residents.
Whether the blaze ultimately prompts broader changes in fire safety standards across Korea's increasingly automated logistics industry may prove as significant as the investigation itself.
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