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What we can learn from the Aricell plant fire
6th December 2024
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We never like to hear about a major fire, but the one at the Aricell plant in Hwaseong City is particularly egregious. The South Korean factory fire was a stark reminder of the immense risks associated with handling dangerous goods, particularly lithium batteries, and how a seemingly small fire can quickly and uncontrollably escalate.
Despite how fast the fire progressed, there are inevitably some questions about how a fire like this in a high-risk environment could be allowed to happen, and could lead to the deaths of 23 people. Here’s what we know so far about the Aricell plant fire, and what might be done to protect against such intense fires in the future.
The circumstances of the Aricell fire
CCTV footage shared by the BBC appears to show that the fire originated in a workstation on the second floor of the warehouse, where over 35,000 lithium batteries were reportedly stored. The exact cause of the initial ignition remains under investigation, but it is possible that some kind of damage or defect caused a ‘thermal runaway’ to occur, where a battery heats up exponentially.
The highly flammable nature of lithium batteries seems likely to have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. The heat generated by a thermal runaway can lead not only to an intense fire, but also explosions that can easily ignite adjacent material, and pose a risk to life.
The resulting fire and explosions grew out of control, quickly sweeping through the site and causing significant structural damage to the building, including the collapse of large sections of the roof. 23 people in the facility were ultimately unable to escape the fire and toxic smoke it would have produced, and sadly lost their lives.
Fire safety laws in South Korea
Fire safety in South Korea is regulated by the National Fire Agency, which is responsible for setting and enforcing fire safety standards. This does include specific regulations governing the storage and handling of dangerous goods, including lithium batteries. However, the adequacy of these regulations in preventing catastrophic fires like the Aricell incident is a subject of ongoing scrutiny.
Questions have been raised previously about fire and blast safety standards in South Korea. One notable recent incident which we covered on the blog was the Yeochun NCC plant explosion in 2022, which killed four people, and affected the global supply chain for ethylene. Following that blast, a planned law to punish the CEOs of negligent companies (The Serious Disasters Punishment Act) was accelerated, promising prison sentences of at least one year, or fines of up to 1 billion won (around £573,000).
The law reflected a push to improve workplace safety in South Korea, which had lagged behind some of its global counterparts. Indeed, the explosion at the Yeochun plant was the second to take place in just four years, and one of several notable industrial accidents in the country. Yet this latest incident suggests the prospect of jail sentences and fines has not ended the issues entirely.
While regulations provide a framework for fire safety, their effectiveness naturally depends on proper implementation and enforcement. Regular inspections, employee training, and a strong safety culture are crucial for preventing fires, and mitigating their consequences when they do occur. The scale of this fire however suggests that important lessons can still be learned to improve overall safety standards in South Korea, and turn such incidents into rare outliers.
Fire safety for dangerous goods
The Aricell tragedy underscores the critical importance of stringent fire safety measures when handling dangerous goods like lithium batteries. This is particularly true of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which are now widely used in South Korean products such as phones and cars. While most batteries pose a fire risk, lithium-ion batteries are particularly vulnerable to heat from a range of sources.
One of the common ways in which lithium-ion batteries can overheat is through overcharging. Impact damage or manufacturing defects can also breach the partitions between different components of the battery, which can also cause a fire. The energy stored in batteries means that these fires are self-sustaining, rapidly increasing in their heat and intensity, and making them extremely difficult to extinguish.
As a result, any battery storage or manufacturing facility needs to undertake strict precautions. One of these is proper storage, with effective ventilation to prevent the build-up of flammable gases, and separation between the battery storage areas, ignition sources, and other parts of the facility. Such areas should also be temperature-controlled to prevent overheating, with backup generators to cover failures on hot days.
Fire suppression is also an important aspect of battery fire safety. If something does go wrong and a fire starts, it needs to be extinguished extremely rapidly. Automatic and manual extinguishers such as inert gas and aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) need to be in place to put out lithium-ion fires, while VESDA fire detection systems should be installed to catch a fire before it escalates.
Proper training is also key. Being able to respond quickly is crucial to bringing a lithium-ion battery fire under control, both by fighting it in a safe way, and knowing when and how to evacuate if the situation deteriorates. The footage from the Aricell plant fire seems to show good responsiveness from employees in fighting the fire, but the situation quickly gets out of control, putting those employees’ lives at risk. The risk was not only the fire and explosions, but also the threat of toxic smoke and lithium gas, both of which can be deadly.
The role of passive fire protection
One aspect which can’t yet be fully accounted for is the role of passive fire protection. Passive fire protection systems such as Durasteel barriers play a crucial role in protecting facilities such as this which pose a high fire risk. The capacity for chain reactions means that any fire or explosion can quickly and easily propagate through a facility if the right protections aren’t in place. This kind of fire and blast protection may not always be feasible on a factory floor, due to the difficulty in providing effective separation and compartmentation within a large manufacturing space.
However, the role that passive fire and blast protection can play in such a scenario is to compartmentalise different areas within the site. This would for example help to contain a fire or explosion to the factory floor, and slow its spread to other areas, such as battery storage areas. Likewise, barriers around a storage room would prevent fires or blasts from damaging parallel rooms and structures.
Passive fire protection is particularly useful in the case of a lithium-ion battery fire as the fire itself can spread extremely quickly, destroying or damaging the facility and posing a substantial risk to life. Durasteel barriers or other passive fire and blast protection systems could help to shield key areas and thoroughfares to allow for a safe evacuation, and to assist emergency services in accessing the site to fight the fire.
It is currently not known whether the site included such safety systems. However, the destruction of much of the site and the high death toll would appear to suggest that the fire escalated and spread rapidly, pointing to either a lack of such protections or the inadequacy of the systems to combat such a rapid and intense fire, and such powerful blasts.
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While the investigation into the Aricell fire is ongoing, it is clear that the incident highlights the need for enhanced safety measures in the handling and storage of lithium batteries, and a careful consideration of industrial safety standards in general.
By implementing robust fire safety protocols and incorporating advanced passive and active fire protection systems, high-risk industries such as lithium-ion battery manufacturing can significantly reduce the risk of catastrophic fires, and prevent such a devastating and senseless loss of life from happening again.
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