On the morning of June 24, local time, a fire broke out in a battery factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.
Late at night on June 24, Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming rushed to the scene of the fire at the Hwaseong battery factory in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, to learn about the accident, the progress of the search and rescue, and the aftermath arrangements, and listened to the relevant briefings of the South Korean government and fire department.
Ambassador Xing Haiming urged the ROK side to find out the cause of the accident as soon as possible, deal with the aftermath, and provide all necessary support to the families of the Chinese victims.
The South Korean side said that 22 people have been killed in the accident, and based on personal belongings, it is preliminarily judged that 17 Chinese citizens are among them, and the exact number needs to be further confirmed. Eight other people were injured, including one Chinese citizen with minor injuries, and all of the injured have been treated. The fire department is also searching for one other missing person. The ROK side also said that it deeply mourns the unfortunate death of Chinese citizens in the accident and will assist China in making every effort to rescue and deal with the aftermath.
Ambassador Xing Haiming said at the scene, "I am extremely saddened by the heavy casualties and property losses caused by the fire at the Hwaseong battery factory, especially the unfortunate deaths of many Chinese citizens. The party and the government are highly concerned about the accident and immediately instructed us to coordinate with the relevant departments in the ROK to make all-out efforts to carry out the work of treatment, aftermath and investigation of the accident. I would like to express my condolences to the victims and my sincere condolences to the bereaved families and the injured. The Chinese Embassy in the ROK is working with the ROK side to do its utmost to deal with the aftermath of the accident. It is hoped that the relevant enterprises in South Korea will learn a painful lesson, and that similar accidents will not occur again in the future, so as to effectively protect the lives, health and safety of Chinese citizens in South Korea."
Jin Zeyuan (not her real name), who works at the battery factory involved, told reporters that there are more than 100 workers at the factory, mostly Korean women from northeastern China, mostly between the ages of 30 and 40. Most of the victims came from the three buildings and two floors of the battery factory, "[there] are mainly workshops for packaging and welding batteries. ”
Kim Taek-won told reporters that she escaped by not going to work because she took leave. After the fire, a worker working on the first floor told her that the building was full of black smoke and she couldn't see anything clearly, and that several Korean clerks on the second floor jumped out of the office window and broke their legs.
She said that the battery factory involved mainly produces military lithium batteries, and a small part of them are civilian batteries for export. "The wage is the lowest hourly wage in South Korea, 9,860 won per hour, which is equivalent to 50 yuan. Compared to other jobs with the same salary, the work here is less intensive, and there are pensions and construction subsidies. Kim Zeyuan is from Liaoning Province and is of Korean ethnicity, and as far as she knows, most of the workers in South Korean factories are of Korean ethnicity like her. ”
Jin Zeyuan revealed that on June 22, a battery exploded on the first floor of two buildings in the battery factory involved, and employees immediately extinguished the fire with a fire hydrant. The factory once reminded workers that lithium batteries are prone to explosion and fire when they are violently collided. "I've been working for about a month, and I haven't received any training in firefighting, and the factory hasn't organized a fire drill." Kim Taek-won said.
The fire broke out at a manufacturing plant of Aricell, a lithium-ion battery manufacturer located in Hwaseong, south of Seoul. The battery factory, called Aricell, is a lithium-ion battery manufacturer under South Korea's SK Group, a joint venture between SK Innovation and SK IE Technology, established in 2020 to produce lithium batteries for sensors and radio communication equipment. Aricell has an annual production capacity of 5GWh, accounting for about 1.25% of South Korea's total annual battery production capacity.
At the time of the fire, it was reported that at least 35,000 batteries may have been stored in the factory. An employee who escaped from the second floor told firefighters that a battery had deflagrated.
Local firefighters are reportedly having difficulty completely extinguishing the fire due to the fact that lithium battery combustion is difficult to deal with with conventional fire extinguishing methods. Lithium-ion battery fires are mainly caused by the phenomenon of thermal runaway. Lithium-ion batteries are composed of a positive electrode, a negative electrode, a separator, and an electrolyte, and when the separator is damaged, the contact between the positive and negative electrodes can cause overheating, which can cause fires and explosions.
Once a fire starts, lithium battery fires are difficult to extinguish with the usual fire extinguishing methods. Even though the flame appears to have been extinguished, heat is continuously generated inside, and the explosion is accompanied by the release of a large amount of hydrogen fluoride gas (a harmful gas), making extinguishing the fire more difficult.
Source: Red Star News, Comprehensive Beijing News, CCTV News, Daily Economic News