A terrible factory blaze, evidently ignited after battery cells exploded inside a lithium battery manufacturing plant, killed 23 mostly contract workers and injured eight more in Hwaseong, an industrial area just 50 kilometres southwest of Seoul, the South Korean capital, on Monday.
Firefighters with search dogs combed the gutted structure on Tuesday and found the remains of the last person who had been unaccounted for. Seventeen of those who died were ethnic Korean Chinese contract workers, and one was Laotian.
The factory was a three-storey building with a reinforced concrete structure and a gross floor area of more than 2,300 square metres. Approximately 35,000 lithium batteries were estimated to be stored on the second floor.
When the fire started, sparks burst…
