South Korea battery maker apologises for deadly fire but says it complied with safety rules

HWASEONG, South Korea - The chief executive officer of a South Korean lithium battery manufacturer apologised on June 25 following a massive factory fire that killed 23 workers, but said the company had complied with all required safety precautions and training.

The fire on June 24, which began at a factory with 35,000 lithium batteries, produced thick smoke that spread quickly and the workers inside the second-floor location likely lost consciousness and succumbed within seconds, fire officials said.

Firefighters with search dogs combed the gutted structure on June 25 in Hwaseong, an industrial cluster south-west of the capital Seoul, and found the last person who had been unaccounted for, raising the death toll to 23.

Seventeen of those who died were Chinese, and one was Laotian. The rest were South Koreans.

Most of them were temporary workers at the plant which is run by South Korea-based Aricell, majority-owned by S-Connect.

Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in South Korea are at risk from accidents like the factory fire, as they make up a large portion of the workforce but face a greater risk of injury or death.

Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan offered condolences on the workers’ deaths and apologised to everyone who had been affected by the accident.

“We will be conscientiously taking part in the investigation by authorities and will do our best to determine the cause of the accident and to take measures to prevent a repeat of such an accident,” Mr Park added.

Officials from agencies including the National Forensic Service, police and the fire department entered the factory as part of a joint investigation.

The fire is the latest industrial accident in a country where dozens of manufacturing workers lose their