A lithium battery factory in South Korea caught fire recently, resulting in serious casualties. This is the most severe fire incident in South Korea in recent years, with the majority of the victims being Chinese migrant workers of Korean descent.
On the morning of June 24th, a fire broke out at the factory of lithium battery manufacturer Aricell in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, and the fire blazed for 5 hours. Footage shown by Korean media depicted thick smoke billowing from the burnt factory building.
As of the reporter’s filing of this report, 23 people have lost their lives in the fire, most of whom are Chinese female workers, with 8 others injured and 1 missing.
It was reported that the Aricell lithium battery factory, a standard steel-framed structure, caught fire in three two-story buildings containing over 35,000 lithium batteries. Due to the difficulty of extinguishing lithium battery fires by conventional means, the fire rapidly spread, with the batteries inside the factory continuously exploding, exacerbating the firefighting efforts.
Burning lithium batteries produce a large amount of toxic gases. Officials speculate that the workers who perished likely lost their lives due to inhaling toxic gases within seconds. The bodies of most victims were found on the initial fire-stricken second floor.
Following preliminary investigations based on surveillance video at the scene, the fire on the second floor that day went from white smoke emitting from the batteries to intense burning and dense smoke filling the entire space in just 15 seconds. Despite on-site workers attempting to use fire extinguishers, they couldn’t contain the fire’s spread.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol visited the fire scene on the night of the incident to pay respects to the accident victims and their families and called for a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident.
For many years, many people from northeastern China have sought higher job wages through intermediary agencies to work in South Korea. Particularly in areas with a high concentration of Korean residents near North Korea, who speak Korean making it easier for them to find employment. In South Korea, Chinese workers often work in factories or engage in labor-intensive and low-income jobs that the local population tends to avoid.
According to Jin Zheyuan (pseudonym), who escaped the fire by taking a day off, the factory employed over 100 workers, predominantly Korean-Chinese women aged between 30 and 40 from northeastern China. The three two-story buildings where most victims were located primarily housed packaging and battery welding workshops.
Jin Zheyuan from Liaoning Province of China is of Korean descent. According to her understanding, workers in South Korean factories, like her, mainly hail from China’s Korean community. She mentioned that the hourly wage is equivalent to 50 Chinese yuan, which is considered low in South Korea. However, compared to other jobs with similar wages, the work here is less intense, with retirement benefits and project subsidies.
Chinese netizens expressed condolences in the comment section and many envied the hourly wage of 50 yuan.
A Chinese man named Xiaoding from Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, China, told Epoch Times that most people working in South Korea as laborers apply for job opportunities with non-professional employment E-9 visas through intermediaries, for which they need to pay a considerable intermediary fee. However, compared to incidents in China, they can receive better compensation in case of accidents in South Korea. In China, serious accidents could be covered up, making it difficult for families to seek justice.
On June 25, SK Group issued a statement clarifying that Aricell, the company involved in the fire in Hwaseong City, South Korea, had no association with SK Group.
According to previous reports, the manufacturer Aricell, established in 2020 as a joint venture between SK Innovation and SK IE Technology, produces lithium batteries for sensors and wireless communication devices and is a subsidiary of the South Korean publicly traded company S-Connect. On the day of the fire, S-Connect’s closing price dropped by 22.51%.
SK Innovation and SK IE Technology are subsidiaries of the third-largest conglomerate in South Korea, the SK Group.
Safety concerns regarding batteries for new energy vehicles are becoming increasingly prominent.
On April 8th, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that SK’s SK Battery America faced a $77,200 fine due to a lithium-ion battery fire in October 2023 in Georgia that may have caused permanent respiratory system damage to employees. SK Battery America also faced five serious safety violations, including “failing to devise a comprehensive emergency response plan, exposing employees to inhalation hazards such as hydrofluoric acid vapors from lithium-ion battery fires,” among others.
Compared to overseas incidents, China faces more serious issues with fires linked to new energy vehicles, though such cases are less frequently reported in the media.
On February 23rd, a large fire broke out in a residential building in Yuhuatai District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, caused by an electric car parked in the open-air layer, resulting in at least 15 fatalities and 44 injuries.
Throughout 2023, the National Fire and Rescue Bureau received reports of 21,000 electric bicycle fires. Data indicates that battery malfunctions are a key factor leading to electric vehicle fires.