TapTechNews June 24, it was reported by Yonhap News Agency that a large-scale fire broke out today at the lithium battery factory of battery manufacturer ARICELL located in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi-do (TapTechNews note pronunciation: ji).
According to the fire department's notification, as of 17:55 local time, the death toll has risen to 22, in addition, there are 2 people missing and 6 people injured. Since the search work is not yet completely over, the exact number of casualties awaits further verification.
Earlier today, the fire department had said that 23 people were missing in the fire, among which 20 are non-Korean nationals, 2 are Korean, and 1 person's nationality is unknown.
At 10:31 local time, a fire broke out on the third floor of the factory of ARICELL located in Seosin-myeon, Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi-do. There are 35,000 finished lithium battery products stored in the building, and many batteries have exploded, bringing great difficulties to the firefighting work.
Considering that lithium is a harmful chemical substance and the possible further expansion of the scale of casualties and the fire, the fire department issued a Level 2 response (ordering 3 to 7 fire stations to mobilize 31 to 50 devices), and dispatched 145 firefighters and 50 devices to carry out the firefighting work. At around 15:10, after the fire was controlled, firefighters began to enter the building for search and rescue.