Why did many Chinese citizens die in the sudden fire at a battery factory in South Korea?

A fire broke out at a lithium battery factory in the northwest of South Korea on the morning of the 24th. The Gyeonggi Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters reported on the 24th that as of 17:55 local time, the death toll in the fire at the battery factory in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, has risen to 22 people.

On June 24th, firefighters were extinguishing the fire at the scene in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province. The photo was released by Xinhua News Agency.

According to the Chinese embassy in South Korea, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the police have informed the embassy about the casualties of Chinese citizens. According to the latest report from the South Korean side, there were 19 Chinese citizens who died in the incident. Embassy staff have rushed to the scene to further verify the situation.

The Chinese embassy in South Korea said that the South Korean side has expressed its attention and condolences to the embassy regarding the incident. The Prime Minister of South Korea has visited the site and instructed to communicate with the Chinese embassy and the families of the victims in a timely manner, and to take all measures to treat the injured.

The battery exploded and burned

The factory is located in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, about 45 kilometers away from Seoul. The factory is a three-story building with a reinforced concrete structure. According to Yonhap News Agency, there may have been at least 35,000 batteries in the factory when the fire occurred. An employee who escaped from the second floor told the firefighters that a battery exploded and burned.

Local firefighters also believe that the cause of the fire was the lithium batteries produced by the factory. Because lithium reacts violently with water, producing hydrogen gas. All the lithium batteries piled up on the second floor of the factory were on fire, and the firefighters said they could not directly extinguish the fire with water. At the time of the incident, there were 102 people working in the factory. People on the first floor had already taken shelter by themselves, and many people on the second floor could not escape.

In the evening of June 24th local time, according to the person in charge of the fire department involved in the rescue at the fire scene of the battery factory in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, after analyzing the scene monitoring video and other preliminary investigations, the lithium battery factory that had a serious fire on that day had a large amount of thick smoke and burned quickly when the fire broke out. From the white smoke to the intense burning, and then to the smoke filling the entire working space, it only took 15 seconds. After the incident, although the on-site employees tried to extinguish the fire with fire extinguishers, they could not contain the development of the fire.

The battery company where the fire occurred is called A ricell, which was established in 2020. A ricell is a battery company that produces lithium batteries for sensors and wireless communication equipment. It is a subsidiary of the listed company S-Connect in South Korea, and S-Connect's technology involves various IT products (smartphones, tablets, watches, notebooks, etc.) and folding screen phone hinge fields, and is a supplier of folding screen phone hinges for Samsung.

Yoon Seok-youl instructed to rescue with all efforts

Earlier in the day, TV screens showed that the burning factory kept having small explosions and emitting a large number of sparks. At around 3:10 in the afternoon, more than four hours after the fire started, the firefighters controlled the fire and entered the factory, where they found bodies.

According to reports, in the afternoon of the same day, the South Korean government held an emergency meeting of the Central Disaster Safety Countermeasures Headquarters to discuss measures to reduce casualties. At the meeting that day, the Minister of Administrative Safety of South Korea, Lee Sang-min, asked various departments and local autonomous bodies to mobilize all resources and manpower to extinguish the fire and rescue survivors with all efforts.

The South Korean presidential office said that President Yoon Seok-youl has ordered relevant departments to rescue with all efforts, while ensuring the safety of firefighters. In the evening of the 24th, South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl went to the fire scene to check. Yoon Seok-youl expressed condolences to the victims and their families at the scene and demanded a thorough investigation of the cause of the accident. The Governor of Gyeonggi Province said at the scene that Gyeonggi Province will launch a large-scale safety inspection throughout the region to avoid similar tragedies from happening again.

According to foreign media reports, in 1989, a chemical factory in the national industrial park of Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, South Korea, exploded, killing 16 people and injuring 17. This time the accident is more serious and "unprecedented".

There are many Chinese people working in South Korea

This fire involves many Chinese citizens. A person from the lithium battery industry told reporters that China's battery industry chain is in a leading position in the global market, with many mature industrial workers and practitioners. South Korean companies also pay relatively high remuneration to introduce Chinese workers.

A local from Yanbian, Jilin, told reporters that there are many people from the local area working in Japan and South Korea, because Yanbian is a gathering area for the Korean ethnic group, so there is no language problem for locals to work in South Korea.

In the afternoon of June 24th, Xiao Jie, a Chinese person working in Busan, South Korea, told reporters that the fire-fighting battery factory is located in an industrial park. He had been to Hwaseong City before but had not been to the industrial park. He learned from the news that there were compatriots who died in the fire, and his heart was very heavy. "There are many Chinese people working in that battery factory and nearby factories." Xiao Jie said that the minimum working standard in South Korea is 9860 won (about 51.6 yuan) per hour, and overtime will be increased by 50%. Most factories in South Korea will give this price.

A Chinese person working near the fire-fighting factory told reporters that he was working in another factory and did not know the workers in the fire-fighting factory, but as far as he knows, there are many Chinese people working in this factory.

Public data shows that in 2023, the demand for foreign workers by South Korean companies exploded, with a total of 120,000 foreign workers introduced in the year. In 2024, the South Korean government continued to expand the scale of introduction, reaching 165,000 people. According to the "December 2023 Statistical Monthly Report" published by the Ministry of Justice of South Korea, as of the end of December 2023, there were a total of 2.508 million foreigners residing in South Korea, an increase of 11.7% year-on-year, setting a new high since 2019. In terms of the nationality of foreigners, Chinese (including the Korean ethnic group) are the most numerous, with 942,000 people, accounting for 37.6% of the total number of foreigners; followed by Vietnamese, with 272,000 people; and then Thais, with 201,210 people.

Extended reading

Our country may start safety inspections on some large energy storage stations

Just last month, as one of the world's largest battery energy storage projects, the Gateway energy storage station in Otay Mesa, California, USA, also had a serious fire accident that lasted for several weeks.

According to foreign media reports, on the evening of May 14th local time, the Gateway energy storage station was reported to have a fire for the first time, and the California Fire Department dispatched 40 firefighters and 5 fire trucks to deal with the fire. A day later, fire officials believed that the fire was basically extinguished, but on May 16th, some batteries were re-ignited and continued to burn for several days.

The fire at the battery factory in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, and the fire at the Gateway energy storage station in the United States have provided important safety warnings for the current booming energy storage. Many energy storage safety and fire experts believe that this is worth learning from the experience and lessons for domestic competent departments and related industries, especially for the old power stations that have been operating for more than three years, it is necessary to carry out self-inspection and self-correction. At the same time, it is recommended to compulsorily require insurance for the current booming commercial and industrial energy storage to avoid a large number of disputes in the future.

In recent years, the number of domestic large-scale battery energy storage projects has continued to increase, and China has become the world's largest energy storage market. Data from the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance shows that in 2023, China added 21.5GW/46.6Wh of new energy storage installations, accounting for nearly 50% of the global new installations, of which lithium battery energy storage accounted for 97%.

Experts believe that there are still some large energy storage stations with station houses in the country, and it is recommended to carry out safety inspections as soon as possible and check the safety hazards of the power stations again. The latest news from the reporter is that the relevant parties have adopted the above suggestions and will carry out inspections on the same type of energy storage stations.