Fire at battery plant in Hwaseong kills at least 23 workers

A firefighter is searching for missing people at the site of a fire at a lithium battery plant in Sinseo-myeon, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province on June 24. Cho Tae-hyung

A fire broke out at a lithium battery plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, on June 24, killing 22 workers. Most of the dead workers were foreigners from China and other countries. It caused the most human casualties among fire accidents that happened at chemical plants in Korea.

The government launched the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on the day to take pan-governmental measures. The police and prosecutors each set up investigation headquarters to launch an investigation.

According to fire authorities, a fire broke out at Aricell, a lithium battery factory in Seosin-myeon, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, at 10:31 a.m., killing 23 people, leaving two seriously injured and six slightly wounded.

The fire broke out on the second floor of a three-story factory building with a reinforced concrete structure. Authorities believe a single battery cell caught fire, causing a series of explosions. The plant had 35,000 battery cells, making it difficult for the rescue team to enter the building. Authorities preemptively activated the second level of response to extinguish the fire because it broke out at a plant handling hazardous chemicals and there were concerns about additional loss of life and the spread of the fire.

Firefighters were able to bring the blaze under control at 3:10 p.m., more than four hours and 40 minutes after the fire broke out, and rescuers were able to enter the building. There were 102 workers on duty that day and 21 people were missing. All of the missing people were found dead in the building. Earlier, a man in his 60s died from full-body burns and cardiac arrest in the early stages of the fire. The nationalities of the deceased were two South Koreans, 18 Chinese, one Laotian, and two unknown.

Fire authorities believe that most of the workers were trapped inside the building, unable to escape the flames as they were working on the second floor. "The bodies retrieved from the scene are still difficult to identify because many of them were badly burned," said a fire department official.

After receiving a report on the fire accident, President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered, "All-out efforts should be made to search and rescue people by mobilizing all available manpower and equipment." Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, who is also the head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, visited the scene of the fire after discussing ways to deal with the accident with related agencies and examined the fire suppression process and search and rescue situation.

The police squad of the Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency has set up an investigation headquarters of about 130 people to determine the cause of the fire.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Police Department's criminal riot squad organized an investigation headquarters of about 130 people to determine the cause of the fire. The Suwon District Public Prosecutors' Office also organized a dedicated investigation with the second deputy prosecutor as its team leader.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.