Deadly fire at South Korea battery maker due to quality failure, police say (updated)

S Connect Co

23/08/2024 03:52

(Adds quote, details from police briefing, background on fire)
       SEOUL, Aug 23 (Reuters) - A fire at a South Korean
lithium battery maker in June that killed 23 people occurred as
the company raced to produce batteries to meet a deadline
without taking action to address signs of dangerous quality
failures, police said on Friday.
    Nine other workers were injured in the fire at battery maker
Aricell, majority owned by S-Connect. Calls to Aricell seeking
comment following the police announcement were not immediately
answered. 
    Police have been investigating the blaze, which was one of
South Korea's deadliest industrial accidents in recent years,
over suspected safety violations after ordering a halt of
operations.
        The company had failed a quality inspection in April for
batteries that were intended to be supplied to the country's
military and subsequently ramped up production to make up the
backlog to meet a deadline, police official Kim Jong-min said.
  
        It hired temporary and unskilled workers, contributing
to a jump in product defect rates, including overheating of
finished batteries, but did not take action to contain safety
risks, Kim told a news conference.
  
        "The accident occurred as the company pushed ahead
without taking measures despite problems in various steps in the
production process," he said.
  
        The high number of casualties was due to a lack of
emergency escape training, Kim said. The workers who were killed
had missed a 37-second window to escape, he said.
  
        Security camera footage showed the fire sparking from a
stack of batteries and quickly engulfing the factory where
35,000 lithium batteries were stored.
  
        The spread of toxic smoke probably rendered workers
unconscious within seconds, fire officials have said.
  
        Seventeen of those who died were Chinese, and one was
Laotian. The rest were South Koreans.
  
        Soon after the fire, Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan had 
    offered condolences
     to the workers who were killed and apologised to everyone
who had been affected by the accident.
  
        Park said at that time the company had complied with all
required safety precautions and training, but pledged to take
part in the probe and ensure there could be no repeat of such an
accident.
  
        Set up in 2020, Aricell has 48 full-time employees and
makes lithium primary batteries for sensors and radio
communication devices.
  
        The company had supplied batteries to the military for
use in some communication and cryptography devices, a
spokesperson for South Korea's defence procurement agency has
said.
  

 (Reporting by Jack Kim and Heekyong Yang 
Editing by Ed Davies)
 ((jack.kim@thomsonreuters.com; +822 6936 1455;))