Busan Station Area Great Fire

Busan Station Area Great Fire (釜山驛前 大火災) was a fire incident that broke out on 27 November 1953 in the refugee shantytown area of Jung-gu, Busan Metropolitan City, and spread to the Jung-gu area of Busan at the time and to Busan Station.

Course of events

The day the fire broke out, 27 November 1953, was the fourth month after the armistice agreement of 27 July that year brought the Korean War to an armistice, and the government of the Republic of Korea had returned to Seoul.¹ The Busan area had not been occupied by the Korean People's Army during the Korean War, and because the government had moved south early to escape the war, there were many wartime refugees. The shantytowns of refugees were concentrated in the Yeongju-dong area of Jung-gu, where the fire first started, so even a small flame could cause a large-scale fire. At around 8:30 p.m. on 27 November, the initial fire broke out, and afterward the flames spread in several directions carried by the wind. The fire was brought under control at around 6:30 a.m. the next day, but the property damage was enormous.

Damage

The fire totally destroyed Busan Station. After the fire, Choryang Station was closed, and until 1966 a temporary building was used as the station house; in that year construction of a new station building began, and in 1968 the station was relocated to its current location near Choryang-dong.²

In addition, transportation, communications and broadcasting in the city were paralyzed, including Busan Ilbo, the KBS Busan Broadcasting Station, and the Busan post office. 3,132 houses were completely burned, and property and human damage occurred, with 29 casualties and more than 30,000 displaced persons from over 6,000 households. The amount of damage was 17.7 billion , equivalent to 1.77 trillion won by current monetary value.