South Korea: One dead, 21 ‘unaccounted for’ as fire rages at lithium battery plant in Hwaseong


Now a large fire is burning at a lithium battery plant in South Korea one person's confirmed dead and at least 21 others are unaccounted for more than 140 firefighters have been sent to the factory to try to stop the spread of the blaze but Fire Chiefs say it's impossible for Crews to enter Because battery cells are constantly exploding let's get more on this and talk to Unis Kim she joins us on the phone from just south of the capital Soul unit so this sounds like a pretty big fire uh what more can you tellus right Daren the Hang Fire Department holding their first briefing on this blades confirming that the fire's first casualty uh and they are also trying to ass search in how many people are trapped inside with some 21 unreachable at this hour as you noed so that casually count will likely creep up firefighters have been struggling to even get inside of the three story structure as the blaze raging since this morning is believed to hold tens of thousands of lithum ion batteries which burns hotter and for longer thantraditional batteries president Yun directed relevant ministers and the National Fire agency to deploy all needed resources to rescue the people inside with regard for firefighter safety of course amid the toxic fumes yeah Unice as you say because there are batteries that are on fire the firefighters are facing significant difficulties and challenges trying to put the fire out that's right uh so these are batteries but but notably they are lithium ion batteries of course we use them in our everyday lives from gadgetsto electric vehicles and though they don't necessarily ignite easier than traditional batteries uh they once they do ignite they do burn for longer so firefighters also essentially facing the danger of new fires even once they can get inside uh because it these um lithian ion batteries can detonate at any point uh given when they are overheating um and also the separator is damaged so fire authorities say this has been the case this morning with multiple explosions cited at this Factory and intense Flames making it extremelydifficult to get inside all right Unis Came live for on the phone near the South Korean capital Soul where that battery manufacturing plant is still on fire we'll obviously get more information as we get it here on Al jazer make sure to subscribe to our channel to get the latest news from Al jazer

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