The South Korean lithium battery maker started a fire in June that left 23 people dead, according to police on Friday ( Aug 23 ), as the company worked overtime to produce batteries without meeting a deadline.
Nine other staff were injured in the fireplace at battery manufacturer Aricell, majority owned by S-Connect. Calling to Aricell for comment were not immediately returned after the police statement.
One of South Korea’s deadliest business incidents in recent years, the blaze, which police have been looking into, was allegedly a result of safety violations after the order to halt procedures.
According to police official Kim Jong-min, the business had failed a superior observation in April for batteries intended to be supplied to the country’s military and had then increased production to make up the delay to meet a deadline.
It hired transitory and poor workers, contributing to a jump in goods fault rates, including heat of ended batteries, but did not take action to have security risks, Kim told a news conference.
He claimed that the accident occurred as the business continued without taking any measures despite issues at different production stages.
According to Kim, the large number of casualties was brought on by a lack of emergency exit training. The employees who were killed had missed a 37-second glass to escape, he said.
The fire immediately swept through the manufacturer where 35, 000 lithium batteries were stored, according to surveillance camera footage showing it coming from a stack of batteries.
According to fire officials, the spread of dangerous fumes likely rendered workers unconscious within seconds.
Seventeen of those who died were Taiwanese, and one was Laotian. The remainder were South Koreans.
Shortly after the blaze, Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan expressed his condolences to the victims of the incident and apologised to everyone who had been hurt.
Park claimed that the company had followed all the necessary security measures and training at the time, but that he had pledged to participate in the investigation to prevent a similar injury from occurring again.
Aricell, which was founded in 2020, produces lithium-prime chargers for cameras and radio communication equipment and employs 48 full-time workers.
According to a spokesperson for South Korea’s defense sourcing agency, the company had provided batteries to the defense for use in some conversation and encryption devices.