Welcome to the Suck

So Namdemun, the Republic of Korea's super-best-#1 symbol of national pride and the oldest wooden structure on the peninsula burned down.

Reasons:
1. Arson (this has pretty much been confirmed and someone has been arrested)
2. Electrical fire (possible, but unlikely)
3. "Mystical Forces": Apparently, Namdemun was built, in part, to protect the once-walled city of Seoul from the fire-causing forces of Mt. Gwanaksan. Geomancy was once quite popular and is much like Fung Shui on a much grander scale.

This is Asia and someone is going to get skewered for this. Possible culprits include KT Security and some members of the Interior Ministry. Basically, it's a 600-year-old wooden building and the only form of fire protection was three or four fire extinguishers around the premises. A sprinkler system would have been a great help, but nobody wanted to damage the building to put it in. I guess it's after the fact, but isn't a slightly modernized building better than no building at all?

But wait, there's more! The building was monitored by a closed-circuit television system. DURING THE DAY ONLY!

Sorry, Korea. This was completely preventable and is basically your fault. I feel really sorry for whomever they pin this on.

Some users of Flickr in Seoul were on the scene and have taken some excellent and extremely powerful pictures of the tragedy in progress and after the fact. Check them out here, but please respect their copyrights.
Picture at top courtesy of "sean in japan" under a cc-by-sa license.