On May 24, a fire broke out in one of the office buildings in KAIST Munji Campus. Two firefighters were injured in the process of extinguishing the fire.
The fire started in room A406, located on the fourth floor of the Administration Building in Munji Campus at 1:38 a.m. After receiving a 119 call from an employee working on the same floor, the firefighters arrived quickly and successfully put out the fire by 2:05 a.m. At least 10 employees in the building at the time were evacuated for safety.
According to a witness, the fire started shortly after a huge explosion that was large enough to shatter windows. The fire completely burned the whole 50 m2 office and the outer wall of the building. The fourth floor hallway was flooded due to the water from sprinklers.
The incident site was far away from the dormitories in Munji Campus so no students were injured. However, two firefighters suffered second-degree burns while the extinguishing operation was underway. The two received immediate treatment.
Meanwhile, initial reports of the fire revealed that the office where it started was used by Seadronix, a KAIST Startup that specializes in AI-powered autonomous ships. It is very likely that the blaze was caused by an explosion of the battery that goes into one of the ships. “We were charging a battery to provide power for a 1.6 m long autonomous ship ahead of an experiment,” recalled Byeolteo Park, CEO of the company. The police are investigating further into the matter to pinpoint the exact cause of the fire.