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25-06-2024
SEOUL/ PYONGYANG: A massive factory fire that began after several lithium batteries exploded has killed at least 22 people in South Korea.
The blaze broke out on Monday morning at the Aricell plant in Hwaseong city, about 45km (28 miles) south of the capital Seoul.
Local television footage showed large smoke clouds and small explosions going off as firefighters sought to put out the fire. A part of the roof had collapsed.
South Korea is a leading producer of lithium batteries, which are used in many items from electric vehicles to laptops.
Fire official Kim Jin-young said 18 Chinese, one Laotian and two South Korean workers had been confirmed as among the dead. A final body had yet to be identified, and there are fears at least one more person may be missing.
“Most of the bodies are badly burned so it will take some time to identify each one,” Kim said, according to media.
A further eight people were injured, two seriously out of the 100 who had been working when the fire broke out.
The Aricell factory housed an estimated 35,000 battery cells on its second floor, where the batteries were inspected and packaged, with more stored elsewhere.
Kim said the fire began when a series of battery cells exploded, though it remains unclear what triggered the initial explosions.
He explained it was difficult to enter the site initially “due to fears of additional explosions”.
It is not yet clear what started the blaze. Lithium batteries are at risk of exploding if they are damaged or overheated.
Whatever the cause, once the fire took hold, it would have spread at speed giving the workers little time to escape, according to Kim Jae-ho, fire and disaster prevention professor at Daejeon University.
“Battery materials such as nickel are easily flammable,” he told media. “So often, there is not enough time to respond, compared to a fire caused by other materials.”
As a lithium fire can react intensely with water, firefighters had to use dry sand to extinguish the blaze, which took several hours to get under control.
However, there is still a risk that after the fire is extinguished, it could reignite without warning due to the chemical reaction.
Meanwhile, Parasites from human waste and defaced Hello Kitty clothing were found in bags of rubbish carried by North Korean balloons into South Korea, officials say.
Hundreds of waste-carrying balloons have been released by Pyongyang across the border in the last few weeks, in retaliation for a leaflet campaign sent northwards by opponents of North Korean leader Kim Kong Un.
Analysis of some of the balloon packages found they contained soil in which “roundworms, whipworms and threadworms” were detected. The chance of infection from the packages is low, South Korea’s ministry of unification said.
North Korea says the balloons are retaliation for a propaganda campaign that criticizes the regime.
Items carried by the balloons also included slashed “western” clothes that had been donated from the South. The clothes featured Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, and Hello Kitty characters, according to media, as well as socks, clothes and heavily patched-up children’s clothes.
The waste sent by North Korea also revealed the country’s woeful economic state, and highlighted “the adversarial stance against South Korea”, a ministry official said.
The soil was probably infected with the parasites because human faeces was used instead of chemical fertilizers in the North, the ministry added. (Int’l News Desk)
