A South Korean firm Aricell produced lithium batteries for the military in Hwaseong, south of the capital Seoul, but several batches failed quality checks in April for the first time and the manufacturer was in a race against time to meet military orders and targets for June, police said.
Aricell, which at the time was trying to produce 5,000 batteries a day, “employed a large number of unskilled workers to achieve this goal and, as a result, the defect rate increased considerably,” Kim Jong-min, from the police in Gyeonggi province (north), told reporters.
Batteries releasing excessive heat had been detected in May, but the company did not remove them because it considered them suitable.
“The accident was caused because the factory was producing too many batteries,” Kim continued.
The fire killed 23 people, including 17 Chinese, according to South Korean authorities, in one of the worst industrial disasters in recent years in the country.
“Due to gross errors, most of the employees [mortos] was found on the other side of the emergency exit, despite [um intervalo de tempo de] 37 seconds during which they could have left, after the first explosion on June 24,” Kim added.
According to police, Aricell has also manipulated data to comply with army orders and bypassed quality controls since 2021.
Police have issued preliminary arrest warrants for three company executives, including Chairman Park Soon-kwan and his son, CEO Park Joong-un, for violating the occupational safety and health law and workplace negligence resulting in death.
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2619656/fogo-mortal-em-fabrica-de-baterias-sul-coreana-deve-se-a-falhas-graves
