The South Korean government on Tuesday ordered urgent safety inspections at high-risk industrial sites, a day after a fire at a lithium battery factory killed 22 workers and left one person missing.
Representatives from agencies including the National Forensic Service, police and firefighters entered the factory as part of a joint investigation.
The fire, which broke out inside a warehouse containing 35,000 lithium batteries, released toxic fumes and workers likely lost consciousness and died within seconds, according to fire officials.
The fire is the latest industrial accident in a country where dozens of manufacturing workers die on the job every year, despite repeated calls to improve workplace safety.
“I call on the ministries of labor and industry as well as the National Fire Agency to carry out an urgent safety inspection and, in case of fear of an accident, to take immediate action,” said Prime Minister Han Duck-soo during a cabinet meeting.
Seventeen of the 22 workers who died were Chinese and one Laotian was also among the dead. Most of them had been hired temporarily to work in the primary lithium battery packaging plant of the unlisted company Aricell.
The factory is located in Hwaseong, an industrial hub located southwest of the capital Seoul.
Firefighters accompanied by search dogs combed the gutted structure looking for the only person still missing. They found human remains and personal items, which will be subjected to DNA testing for identification, said Hwaseong fire chief Kim Jin-young.
Founded in 2020, South Korean company Aricell manufactures primary lithium batteries for sensors and radio communications devices. It employs 48 people, according to its latest regulatory filings and LinkedIn profile.
It is majority-owned by S-Connect, which supplies lithium-ion battery parts to Samsung SDI, one of the country’s leading secondary battery manufacturers, according to the S-Connect website.
Regulatory filings show Aricell posted an operating loss of 2.6 billion won ($1.9 million) last year on revenue of 4.8 billion won, and an increase of 14% of the cumulative debt, which amounts to 23.8 billion won. The company has posted net losses every year since its inception.
Shares of S-Connect, listed on the Kosdaq junior index, were down 6% on Tuesday, after falling 22.5% on Monday following news of the fire.
A Labor Ministry official told Reuters an investigation was underway to determine whether Aricell followed safety regulations and provided sufficient training to temporary foreign workers. Violations of these regulations are subject to criminal prosecution, said the official who requested anonymity.
Many bodies have not yet been identified.
Reuters journalists saw crying family members trying to enter the site, which had been cordoned off.
(1 $ = 1 386.2000 won)
