“Twenty foreigners are among the many lifeless”, says firefighter Kim Jin-young.
Seoul:
Twenty-two individuals have been killed — together with 18 Chinese language nationals — in an enormous hearth at a South Korean lithium battery manufacturing unit, the fireplace division mentioned Monday, one of many nation’s worst manufacturing unit disasters in years.
Over 100 individuals have been working within the manufacturing unit when employees heard a collection of explosions from the second ground, the place lithium-ion batteries have been being inspected and packaged, firefighter Kim Jin-young informed media.
Within the huge blaze that ensued, twenty-two individuals have been killed, together with 20 overseas nationals — 18 Chinese language, one from Laos, and one in every of unknown nationality, he mentioned.
🇰🇷 A minimum of 21 individuals have died in a hearth at a lithium battery plant in South Korea. pic.twitter.com/kzQKnhbOYf
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) June 24, 2024
“A lot of the our bodies are badly burned so it is going to take a while to determine every one,” he added.
Firefighters are nonetheless looking for yet one more one that stays unaccounted for, he mentioned, including that they’d managed to comprise the biggest blaze on the plant and get inside.
Firefighters have been “doing cooling operations to forestall the fireplace from increasing to close by factories,” Kim mentioned.
Dozens of fireplace vehicles have been lined up exterior the manufacturing unit, an AFP reporter noticed, with rescue employees carrying our bodies, coated by blue blankets, out of the constructing on stretchers.
Pictures shared by Yonhap after the fireplace broke out confirmed enormous plumes of billowing gray smoke rising into the sky above the manufacturing unit, with orange flames contained in the constructing.
The huge manufacturing unit had an estimated 35,000 battery cells on the second ground in storage, with extra batteries saved in different areas.
Lithium batteries burn scorching and quick, and are tough to regulate with standard hearth extinguishing strategies.
“Resulting from fears of further explosions, it was tough to enter,” Kim mentioned, describing the tough rescue operation.
“As it’s a lithium battery producer, we (had) decided that spraying water won’t extinguish the fireplace, so we (used) dry sand,” he added.
The lithium battery plant is owned by Aricell, a South Korean main battery producer. It’s positioned in Hwaseong metropolis, simply south of the capital Seoul.
Shares of Aricell’s dad or mum firm, S-connect, plunged by over 20 p.c on the Seoul trade by shut Monday. S-connect owns 96 p.c of Aricell.
Lithium batteries are utilized in the whole lot from laptops to electrical autos — however will be extremely explosive, with airways, for instance, imposing strict laws on checking units containing them.
‘Mobilise all personnel’
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol issued emergency directions to authorities, telling them to “mobilise all accessible personnel and tools to concentrate on looking for and rescuing individuals,” his workplace mentioned.
The president additionally warned authorities that they need to “guarantee the protection of firefighters contemplating the speedy unfold of fireplace”.
Authorities in Hwaseong despatched out a collection of alerts to residents warning them to remain inside.
“There’s a number of smoke as a consequence of manufacturing unit fires. Please take note of security, similar to refraining from going out,” one alert despatched by textual content message mentioned.
“Manufacturing unit hearth. Please detour to surrounding roads and close by residents please shut home windows,” one other one learn.
South Korea is a serious producer of batteries, together with these utilized in electrical autos.
Its battery makers provide EV makers around the globe, together with Tesla.
The hearth is one in every of South Korea’s worst manufacturing unit disasters in years.
Beforehand, it is worst chemical plant accident was in 1989 on the Fortunate Chemical manufacturing unit in Yeosu, Southern Jeolla Province, which resulted in 16 deaths and 17 accidents.
A fireplace at a warehouse in Icheon in 2020 killed 38 individuals.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)