SEOUL: At least 22 people were killed, including 18 Chinese nationals, in a massive fire at a South Korean lithium battery factory in Hwaseong city, the fire department said on Monday, one of the country’s worst factory disasters in recent years.
The blaze erupted at the Aricell lithium battery plant, triggering multiple explosions that could be heard from the second floor where workers were engaged in inspecting and packaging lithium-ion batteries. Over 100 workers were inside the facility at the time, according to firefighter Kim Jin-young, who provided details to the media.
“Most of the bodies retrieved are badly burned, making identification a challenging process,” Kim stated, emphasizing the difficulty faced by rescue teams in the aftermath of the fire.
Rescue operations were hampered by the intense heat and the volatile nature of lithium batteries, which burn at high temperatures and are not easily extinguished by conventional methods. Firefighters deployed dry sand instead of water to control the flames and prevent further explosions, which posed significant risks during the rescue efforts.
Images from the scene captured by Yonhap news agency showed thick plumes of smoke billowing into the air and flames raging inside the factory building, highlighting the scale and intensity of the inferno.
The lithium battery plant, owned by South Korean manufacturer Aricell, housed approximately 35,000 battery cells on the second floor alone, with additional batteries stored elsewhere on the premises.
Following the tragedy, shares of S-connect, Aricell’s parent company, plummeted by more than 20% on the Seoul stock exchange by the end of trading hours on Monday. S-connect holds a 96% stake in Aricell, which specializes in the production of primary batteries.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued immediate directives to mobilize all available resources for search and rescue operations.
Local authorities in Hwaseong city issued safety alerts to residents, advising them to stay indoors due to heavy smoke from the factory fire. The incident prompted a swift response from emergency services and heightened concerns over industrial safety standards in South Korea, a major global supplier of batteries used in electronic devices and electric vehicles (EVs).
This incident marks one of South Korea’s worst factory disasters since a warehouse fire in Icheon claimed 38 lives in 2020.
Previously, its worst chemical plant accident was in 1989 at the Lucky Chemical factory in Yeosu, Southern Jeolla Province, which resulted in 16 deaths and 17 injuries.
