SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Rescuers combed through the charred ruins of a factory building near South Korea’s capital on Tuesday to find more fire victims, a day after a devastating fire likely caused by exploding lithium batteries killed 22 people , mainly Chinese. migrant workers.
More than a hundred people were working at the factory in the city of Hwaseong, just south of Seoul, when the fire ripped through it on Monday morning. Security cameras showed smoke engulfing the plant’s second-floor work area shortly after sparks were detected from a location where lithium batteries were stored, fire officials said.
One victim was pronounced dead at a hospital and firefighters later pulled 21 bodies from the factory one by one on Monday. Eighteen victims were Chinese, two South Koreans and one Laotian. The nationality of one of the dead was verified.
Many Chinese, including ethnic Koreans, have migrated to South Korea to find work since China and South Korea established diplomatic ties in 1992. Like other migrant workers from Southeast Asian countries, they often work in factories, construction sites and restaurants, doing the so-called “difficult, dangerous and dirty” jobs shunned by more affluent South Koreans.
Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming visited the factory site on Monday evening and reportedly expressed his condolences for the victims. According to fire officials, police have recovered DNA samples from the dead bodies and their potential relatives to confirm their relationships.
One factory worker remains out of contact, but his cell phone signal was detected in the building Monday afternoon. Eight were injured, two of whom are in serious condition.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol also visited the factory site on Monday. According to Yoon’s office, he expressed condolences for the dead and ordered officials to take measures to effectively deal with battery fires.
On Tuesday, more than 50 firefighters, aided by two rescue dogs and other equipment, were mobilized to further search the burned factory, local fire official Kim Jin-young said during a televised briefing. He said partial remains had been discovered, but it was not immediately known whether they belonged to the missing person.
Kim said a separate team of firefighters, police and other experts would also survey the site later Tuesday to investigate what exactly caused the fire. Labor officials said the government will investigate separately whether safety issues were involved in the fire. The factory is owned by battery manufacturer Aricell.
Most of the dead workers were daily workers, so they were probably unfamiliar with the building’s internal structure, senior fire officer Jo Seon-ho told reporters on Monday. He said video from the fire scene showed them rushing to an area where there was no exit after failing to put out the fire with fire extinguishers. He said the victims likely inhaled toxic smoke.
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous in consumer goods from laptops to cell phones. They can overheat if damaged, defective, or improperly packaged, which can lead to fires and explosions and pose a hazard for shipment on board aircraft.
Monday’s fire is one of the deadliest in South Korea in recent years.
In 2020, a fire at a warehouse under construction in Icheon City, south of Seoul, killed 38 construction workers. In 2018, 46 people died after a fire destroyed a small hospital without sprinkler systems in the southern city of Miryang. In 2008, forty workers, including twelve ethnic Koreans of Chinese nationality, died after a fire and accompanying explosions destroyed a refrigerated warehouse in the city of Icheon.
South Korea has struggled for decades to improve safety standards and change widespread attitudes that view safety as secondary to economic progress and convenience.
