Fire at South Korea primary lithium battery factory kills 22

At least 22 people, most of them foreign nationals, were killed in a massive fire at a South Korean factory that manufactures non-rechargeable lithium batteries in Hwaseong city, just south of Seoul. The cause of the blaze is still being investigated.

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From pv magazine ESS News site

A fire at a primary lithium battery factory in South Korea killed at least 22 people on Monday morning, local officials said.

The blaze broke out at a facility operated by battery maker Aricell in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, about 50 kilometers southwest of Seoul.

After nearly five hours, the fire was extinguished around 3:10 p.m., and firefighters were able to enter the factory, said Hwaseong Fire Department official Kim Jin-young in a briefing.

First reports suggest that two Koreans and 20 foreigners, 18 of whom were Chinese nationals, were among the dead.

Local fire officials told Reuters that the fire at the Aricell battery factory began after several battery cells exploded inside the warehouse, though it remains unclear what caused these explosions in the first place. No official report on the cause of the fire has been issued yet.

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