At Least 20 Bodies Found After Battery Factory Fire

At least 20 people have been found dead with several others injured and missing after a fire erupted at a lithium battery-manufacturing factory in Hwaseong, South Korea on Monday.

The Context

South Korea is one of the world's leading producers of lithium batteries. These batteries are used in a multitude of items including smartphones and laptops, electric vehicles and medical equipment like pacemakers. They are also used in military and aerospace applications.

The Aricell factory is home to an estimated 35,000 battery cells.

Lithium batteries are known to explode or catch fire due to a what is described as thermal run, which can occur when they overheat or are punctured.

What We Know

The fire broke out at around 10:30 a.m. local time at an Aricell factory in Hwaseong City, roughly 28 miles south of the country's capital, Seoul. Aricell is a major South Korean battery manufacturer.

Local television footage showed small explosions as firefighters fought the blaze, which was triggered after a series of battery cells exploded, local fire official, Kim Ji-young said, according to Reuters. What had triggered the explosion was unclear, he reportedly said.

Officials reported that eyewitnesses heard multiple explosions on the second floor at roughly the time the fire broke out. An estimated 100 workers were present at the factory.

Kim said it was difficult to enter the site "due to fears of additional explosions". The fire spread rapidly as a result of consecutive explosions of batteries he said, according to the BBC.

Kim said that many of the missing were foreign nationals, including Chinese workers, whose mobile phone signals were last detected from the second floor of the building, according to the Associated Press.

The office of South Korean President, Yoon Suk-yeol, said he had earlier ordered authorities to mobilize all available personnel and equipment "to focus on searching for and rescuing people."

Local authorities in Hwaseong have issued a series of alerts which have advised the public to stay indoors with windows closed to avoid smoke from the fire.

Firefighters are still searching the building. Dozens of fire engines were seen outside.

Lithium batteries burn fast and hot and fires from the batteries are difficult to control with conventional extinguishing methods. Lithium fire can react with water, so firefighters had to use dry sand to extinguish the blaze, which took hours to get under control according to the BBC.

Newsweek contacted Aricell for comment via S-Connect, a company that has a majority stake in the business, according to an Aricell regulatory filing cited by Reuters.

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