Euljiro Yangmiok Fire: What Happened at the Historic Seoul Restaurant

The Euljiro Yangmiok fire refers to the blaze that broke out at Yangmiok, a well-known restaurant in Seoul’s Euljiro 3-ga area, on the evening of November 23, 2021. Some readers may encounter the search phrase “Euljiro Yangmimiok,” but the restaurant identified across the available source records is Yangmiok, a long-running yang-gopchang specialist tied to the area’s old dining culture.¹

For anyone trying to understand the incident without sorting through multiple Korean reports, the basic picture is clear: a fire report came in at around 7:50 p.m., many customers and employees evacuated, two people were reported with minor injuries in several accounts, and the fire spread beyond the restaurant before being fully extinguished hours later.²³⁴

How the Euljiro Yangmiok Fire Began

Reports place the fire at Yangmiok in Seoul’s Jung-gu, near Euljiro 3-ga, at about 7:50 p.m. on November 23, 2021. Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that authorities received a call about smoke and flames near the second-floor stairway, while Seoul Shinmun later also cited fire authorities saying the report came from around the second-floor stair area.³⁴

Fire authorities issued a Level 1 response, and the reported deployment figures changed somewhat by outlet and timing. Kyunghyang Shinmun reported 44 pieces of equipment and 169 personnel at the scene.³ MBN reported 167 personnel and 42 fire vehicles, while Seoul Shinmun later reported a larger response of 247 personnel and 60 vehicles.¹⁴ Those differences are worth reading as updates from a developing emergency rather than as one simple number.

The evacuation figures also varied across coverage. YTN reported that 16 restaurant employees and 30 customers evacuated, Kyunghyang Shinmun said about 80 employees and customers were inside at the time, and Seoul Shinmun reported that 84 people, including staff and customers, evacuated.²³⁴ Even with those differences, the reports point in the same direction: the fire happened during business hours, when the restaurant was occupied.

Several outlets reported minor injuries. YTN said two people were believed to have suffered light injuries, Kyunghyang Shinmun reported two customers with minor injuries including a right-hand abrasion and soot on the head, and Seoul Shinmun also reported two minor injuries among those who evacuated.²³⁴

Why the Fire Took Hours to Extinguish

YTN reported that the blaze was put out after about six and a half hours.² The available reports do not give a final official cause, but they do explain why extinguishing the fire was difficult once it spread through the structure.

A fire official quoted by Kyunghyang Shinmun said, “Because of the nature of the building’s exterior materials, water had difficulty penetrating, so extinguishing the fire was expected to take quite some time.”³ Seoul Shinmun carried a similar explanation from fire authorities, reporting that the building was made with sandwich panels and that the flames had spread to a neighboring building, which made full extinguishing take longer.⁴

The damage was significant. YTN reported that the entire Yangmiok building and the second floor of a nearby two-story commercial building burned.² Seoul Shinmun reported that the fire spread down to the first floor, leaving Yangmiok’s first and second floors completely burned, and then moved to the second floor of a neighboring building.⁴ Hankook Ilbo also reported that as the fire moved to a nearby commercial building, firefighting work included using heavy equipment to break part of the structure.⁵

There was also some variation in early descriptions of where the fire started. Kyunghyang Shinmun and Seoul Shinmun both described the initial report as coming from the area near the second-floor stairs.³⁴ YTN reported that fire authorities believed the fire began on the second floor and were investigating the cause.² Dong-A Ilbo likewise reported that the fire started on the restaurant’s second floor and spread to an adjacent commercial building.⁶

Why Yangmiok Mattered Beyond One Building

The fire drew attention not only because of its scale, but because Yangmiok was part of Euljiro’s older restaurant landscape. MBN described it as a 29-year-old yang-gopchang restaurant and noted that it was known as a place frequented by former President Kim Dae-jung, as well as a long-established restaurant designated as part of Seoul’s living cultural heritage.¹

That cultural context helps explain why the fire was covered so widely. Euljiro is often discussed as a layered neighborhood where older restaurants, workshops, and small industrial businesses sit close together. Dong-A Ilbo reported that Yangmiok stood in an area dense with old restaurants and workshops, where vulnerability to fire had been pointed out.⁶

The most careful way to summarize the Euljiro Yangmiok fire is to keep the facts modest and precise. On November 23, 2021, a fire broke out at Yangmiok near Euljiro 3-ga, prompted a major firefighting response, forced many people to evacuate, caused limited reported injuries, damaged the restaurant and a neighboring building, and took about six and a half hours to extinguish.²

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