PVTIME – At approximately 11:01 local time on 12 October, a fire broke out in a finished-product warehouse at a lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea.
Following the alert, local fire authorities attended the scene promptly, deploying 32 fire appliances and over 80 personnel. The blaze was fully extinguished at 13:58 the same day, 2 hours and 57 minutes after the start of the firefighting operation. The warehouse contained large quantities of finished lithium-ion batteries, and crews used continuous water sprays to contain the fire and prevent it from spreading further during the operation.
There were no personnel on site within the warehouse during the incident, resulting in zero injuries and no requirement for staff evacuation. Fire service officials indicated that thermal runaway among the stored lithium-ion batteries was the probable cause, noting that the flames did not quickly spread to further battery stock or adjacent buildings.
Fire service teams are currently relocating the batteries to outdoor areas while investigating the source of the ignition and the extent of the damage.
This marks the second warehouse fire at the same plant. A previous incident occurred at around 07:24 on 31 August, also stemming from thermal runaway in the batteries. Around 15 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries were destroyed, and fire damage affected 234m² of the 703m² warehouse. Firefighters spent around 22 hours bringing the earlier fire under full control.
