Battery manufacturer apologizes for Hwaseong factory blaze that left 23 dead

Social Affairs

Published: 25 Jun. 2024, 19:10 Updated: 25 Jun. 2024, 19:15

Battery manufacturer apologizes for Hwaseong factory blaze that left 23 dead

Park Soon-kwan, CEO of Aricell, (right) and other company figures bow their heads at the accident site on Tuesday as they issue a public apology following the massive factory fire that killed 23 workers on Monday. [YONHAP]

The CEO of battery manufacturer Aricell issued a public apology on Tuesday following a massive blaze at its plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, that killed 23 workers on Monday.

“I offer my condolences and apologies to the bereaved families, feeling deep guilt that the fire caused so many casualties,” said Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan, who is also the head of Aricell’s parent company S-connect, as he visited the accident site around 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

The industrial accident happened when a fire broke out on the second floor of a three-story building owned by Aricell, a lithium primary battery manufacturer, in Seosin-myeon, Hwaseong, around 10:31 a.m. The last missing worker's body was found earlier in the day, bringing the total death toll to 23.

Fire authorities confirmed that 35,000 lithium batteries were stored inside the factory.

Among the 23 fatalities, 18 were foreigners, including 17 Chinese nationals and one Laotian.

CEO Park, accompanied by Aricell figures, also wished injured workers a speedy recovery and promised comprehensive support for the victims and their families.

Park and the company denied accusations that they illegally employed foreign workers, saying the day workers were subcontracted laborers dispatched by a personnel company.

However, they did not say whether such subcontracted labor is permitted in the manufacturing industry.

Regarding criticism of inadequate safety measures, the company said emergency exit manuals and fire extinguishers were present.

“Safety education was conducted regularly, and emergency exit manuals written in Korean, English and Chinese were placed in numerous spots, along with maps,” the company said.

Previously, some bereaved families revealed evidence of a prior fire two days before the fatal incident. The company acknowledged this but said it was extinguished immediately and thus not reported to the fire authorities.

When the reporters asked about delays in providing information about the workers present on the day of the fire, the company said they do not have profiles of the contracted laborers, and the process of contacting the contracting company has caused delays. This delay has left the victims' families struggling to locate their deceased loved ones.

Five Aricell personnel, including CEO Park, were charged Tuesday with various offenses, including negligence in ensuring employee safety, according to Gyeonggi police authorities. Park was also charged under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

The police have forbidden them from leaving the country.

Firefighters and forensic workers conduct a joint investigation on Tuesday at a lithium battery plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, where a fire broke out on Monday, resulting in 23 deaths. [JOONGANG ILBO]

The National Forensic Service retrieved the bodies of the victims to perform autopsies, hoping to determine the cause of death and collect DNA samples to match with possible family members.

Due to the severe damage to the bodies, most of the victims have not yet been identified.

However, the identities of two Korean workers were confirmed on Tuesday — a 52-year-old Kim and 46-year-old Lee, a naturalized citizen from China. Lee's relatively intact fingerprints enabled identification.

The police plan to identify the remaining victims by comparing their DNA with that of their families.

A team of police, firefighters, forensic workers and other government officials launched a joint investigation at the fire site around noon on Tuesday and is searching the area to determine the cause of the accident.

A grieving family member weeps at the site of a fire at a lithium battery plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, on Tuesday. [JOONGANG ILBO]

The lack of information regarding the victims and their identities has added to the pain suffered by already grieving family members.

At around 8:50 a.m., three middle-aged men, believed to be Chinese nationals, rushed to Hambaeksan Memorial Park.

The dead bodies were transferred to five different memorial parks and funeral halls in Hwaseong.

"I must check my daughter’s necklace," one of the men told JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korean JoongAng Daily.

"She must also have the keys to her car since she parked at the factory parking lot,” he said.

Despite his hopes, the funeral hall informed them that all belongings had been burned and directed them to the police station handling the case.

A Chinese national in his 40s arrived at a funeral hall in Songsan, Hwaseong, at 8:30 a.m. to seek information about his two cousins. He explained that he worked at the factory with them.

"Both phones of my cousins are powered off," he told JoongAng Ilbo in tears. "They would have called me already if they were alive."

He had been visiting different hospitals, hoping to find them, but left without any information.

Grieving families also visited the burned-out factory site. Women in their 50s and 60s, dressed in black, held each other and wept, saying, "How scared they must have been."

BY CHOI SEO-IN, WOO JI-WON [woo.jiwon@joongang.co.kr]