UPDATE
Sep 24, 2025 8:06 AM CDT
The CEO of a lithium battery manufacturer in South Korea is headed to the clink after one of his company's factories went up in flames last year, killing 23. Park Soon-kwan, head of Aricell, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars on Tuesday, in what NBC News says is "the toughest ruling over an industrial accident in the country." Park—who was charged under Korea's industrial safety law that allows head honchos to see more serious jail time if fatal accidents happen on their watch—didn't make sure the proper safety measures were in place at the Hwaseong facility ahead of the "not ... unpredictable" incident in June 2024, per a Suwon District Court judge. The BBC reports that Park's son, a senior exec at the firm, was also sentenced to 15 years in prison and hit with a $715 fine. Park has apologized previously for the fire but denied any safety lapses.
Jun 24, 2024 5:11 PM CDT
A fire likely sparked by exploding lithium batteries swept through a factory near South Korea's capital on Monday, killing 22 people, mostly Chinese migrant workers, and injuring eight, officials said. The fire began after batteries exploded while workers were examining and packaging them on the second floor of the factory in Hwaseong city, just south of Seoul, at around 10:30am, fire officials said, citing a witness. The dead included 18 Chinese, two South Koreans, and one Laotian, local fire official Kim Jin-young told a televised briefing. He said the nationality of one of the dead couldn't be immediately verified.
The fire started at one of the factory buildings owned by a battery manufacturer, Aricell. Kim said that authorities would investigate whether fire extinguishing systems were at the site and if they worked, the AP reports. Video showed the factory's second floor being engulfed by the blaze about 15 seconds after a small amount of white smoke was seen billowing from a battery, senior fire official Jo Seon-ho told a briefing later Monday.
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Jo, citing the footage, said workers at the site mobilized fire extinguishers but failed to put out the blaze. They later rushed to an area where there was no exit before they likely inhaled toxic smoke and lost consciousness, he said. The dead foreign workers were daily laborers, so they were not likely familiar with the building's internal structure, he added. President Yoon Suk Yeol, wearing a safety helmet and a mask, visited the site with other officials. He expressed condolences and ordered officials to put in place measures to effectively deal with battery-related fires, according to Yoon's office.
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