Get to the bottom of the battery plant inferno

More than 20 workers died from a fire at a battery plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi. The inferno was spiked by an explosion at the three-story factory of Aricell — a lithium battery maker in the city — at 10:31 a.m. on Monday and killed a score of workers trapped on the second floor. The latest fire disaster underscores the safety hazards of energy-related facilities amid the need for an expansion in batteries and other clean energy sources due to an increasing demand and climate change challenges.

According to a number of witnesses, the fire started from an explosion of a tiny battery cell, which instantly blew up all the batteries in the packaging line. The factory contained 35,000 primary batteries at that time. According to battery experts, the fire from a short-circuited cell can cause a chain reaction dubbed a “thermal runaway.” The reaction can be even more inflammatory in rechargeable batteries, or second batteries.

Fire risks in electric vehicles (EVs) must be examined after registered EVs exceeded 500,000 units last year. EV fires have been on the rise at home and abroad. In April, a Huawei-backed EV burst into flames upon crashing into a truck on a highway in the Chinese city of Yuncheng, Shanxi, and killed three passengers in the SUV. In June 2022, a Korean EV also burst into flames and killed two passengers after it collided into a guardrail nearby a tollgate in Busan. That’s not all. The fire of a Tesla vehicle in December 2020 in Yongsan District also caused a death upon colliding with the concrete wall of an apartment building. Firefighters said in a recent report that extinguishing a fire from the battery blast of an EV is the most challenging case.

Experts say that the gas heat from a lithium metal can be extremely inflammatory and hazardous when it meets hydrogen or water, which makes it difficult to control the fire. That’s why battery factories are usually under strict safety scrutiny. The government must find the exact reasons for the latest fire at the battery plant in Hwaseong.

Consumers also should be given stronger safety education on fire risks in batteries and EVs, which are quickly increasing in number Korea. There is no doubt that EVs should be promoted to reduce carbon emissions, but safety hazards from second batteries can pose a stumbling block to the proliferation of the eco-friendly vehicles. The government must carefully study the safety risks in electric cars and prepare diverse countermeasures to fight fires. It must start with safety checkups on battery factories across the country before it’s too late.