1:53 pm, June 24, 2024
A fire at a lithium battery factory in South Korea has killed at least 22 people and injured eight others – two of them seriously.
Officials said several people were missing as well following the blaze in Hwaseong city, some 28 miles south of Seoul.
Local fire official Kim Jin-young told a televised briefing that bodies had been retrieved after combing through the Aricell plant.
The dead included 18 Chinese, two South Koreans and one Laotian, with the nationality of the 22nd person currently unverifiable.
Two of the eight people who were injured were in a serious condition, added Kim.
He said earlier that most of the missing people were foreign nationals, including Chinese citizens. Their mobile phone signals had been tracked to the second floor of the factory.
Much of the blaze, which was reported at 10.31am local time (1.31am today GMT) was put out within six hours, said South Korean media, with the cause being blamed on several batteries exploding inside a warehouse containing some 35,000 battery cells, reported the BBC, although it’s still not known what caused them to explode.
Kim said a total of 102 people were working at the factory before the fire broke out this morning.
Reuters reported officials as saying the victims probably died as a result of inhaling extremely toxic gas seconds after the blaze got out of control.
It quoted Kim Jae-ho, fire and disaster prevention professor at Daejeon University, as saying the fire probably spread too rapidly for workers to escape.
‘Battery materials such as nickel are easily flammable. So often, there is not enough time to respond, compared to a fire caused by other materials,’ he said.
President Yoon Suk Yeol earlier ordered officials to mobilise all available personnel and equipment to find survivors.
Prime minister Han Duck-soo and interior and safety minister Lee Sang-min visited the site, with Han asking officials to provide government assistance for funeral services and to support programmes for victims’ relatives, according to his office.
TV footage also showed the president, wearing a safety helmet and a mask, at the site with other officials.
Calls made to Aricell offices went unanswered, said Reuters.
Main image credit: Yonhap via AP
