At least twenty-two workers at a South Korean battery company died this Monday due to a fire. The flames have spread at high speed after an explosion on the second floor of the factory, dedicated to inspection, packaging and storage, leaving them with no escape. Aricell, the company that was damaged in Hwaseong, 45 kilometers from Seoul, would have lost a quarter of its staff, including deaths and serious injuries.
At least eighteen of the deceased are of Chinese nationality, two are South Korean, one is Laotian and another has not been identified. Dozens of fire vehicles have traveled to the site of the fire, which they have had to put out with sand, when it had already engulfed the three floors. Among the evacuees there are eight injured, two of them with serious burns.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has gone to Hwaseong, where he has expressed his concern for the safety of firefighters. He has also reported that, according to them, the emergency exit was blocked with flammable material, which would have turned the factory into a trap. Yoon has promised more inspections.
The national alert system, for its part, has requested with mobile messages that nearby residents remain in their homes with the windows closed to avoid harmful inhalations resulting from the potential combustion of up to 35,000 stored batteries.
Emergency personnel carry a victim of the Aricell fire in Hwaseong on a stretcher on Monday
Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
One of the workers who managed to escape said that one of the batteries exploded, which would have caused a chain reaction in less than fifteen seconds, accompanied by toxic smoke. The images captured by television showed a landscape typical of a bombing, while firefighters faced a succession of explosions and sparks in the partially sunken ship.
As all airlines know, batteries are easily flammable. Especially lithium ones. Although the company in question manufactured batteries for sensors and radio systems, South Korea is a powerhouse in the entire range, including the most sophisticated ones. In the case of batteries for electric vehicles, three of the six largest companies in the world (LG, SK and Samsung) are Korean, although the first two positions are occupied by Chinese manufacturers.
It took firefighters four hours to extinguish the fire.
Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
The catastrophe has brought to light the high percentage of foreigners in some production chains in South Korea, a country in which immigration is a relatively recent phenomenon. The tragedy coincides with a time of unprecedented labor protests in South Korea. This same month, Samsung experienced the first strike in its history.
Likewise, this Monday the decision to go on strike by the workers of Hyundai, an automobile giant that is also the parent company of Kia, was announced if their demands are not met. Its employees are asking for an increase in the base salary of just over one hundred euros and an increase in productivity bonuses, up to 30% of the company’s profits. Paradoxically, they are not asking to advance the retirement age, but to delay it, no less than four years, from 60 to 64.
If there is no agreement, the strike could interrupt the production of some of Hyundai’s vehicles. However, the announcement has not affected the firm’s price, whose stock market value has increased by 40% so far this year.
On the other hand, the shares of S-Connect, a company listed on the Kosdaq index, have plummeted by 22.5%, as the main shareholder of the injured Aricell.
