A South Korean battery plant boss is sentenced to 15 years in prison for causing a catastrophic fire. Get the details on the incident and t...
A South Korean battery plant boss is sentenced to 15 years in prison for causing a catastrophic fire. Get the details on the incident and the consequences. After a tragic fire last year, a South Korean court has sentenced the head of a lithium battery company to 15 years in jail.
A fire in June 2024 at a facility in Hwaseong City, which is roughly 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of Seoul, killed 23 people, including 18 foreign workers, and hurt eight more.
The court said that the fire was "an anticipated disaster" and that Park Soon-kwan, the CEO of Aricell, and other officials were responsible for the deaths of the workers.
It is the heaviest prison sentence given under the country's industrial safety law, which says that owners or leaders of businesses can get up to one billion won ($715,000; £530,000) or a year in prison for deadly accidents.
Prosecutors wanted a 20-year sentence because they said that improvements made by corporate leaders to the facility made it hard for workers to get away from the fire.
Park's son, who is a top executive at the firm, was also given a 15-year prison sentence and a fine of one million won.
Investigators said that the company didn't have the right safety procedures in place and didn't educate its staff well enough.
After the incident, Park the CEO said sorry, but he refuted claims that the factory was unsafe.
The Aricell plant had about 35,000 battery cells on its second level at the time of the incident. This is where batteries were checked and packed.
Firefighters had to use dry sand to put out the lithium fire since it may react violently with water. It took them many hours to get it under control.
Lithium batteries are used in a lot of things, such computers and electric automobiles. South Korea is one of the biggest producers of these batteries.
President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea has claimed that not enough is being done to keep workers safe from death or injury on the job, and he has promised to make firms pay more for accidents that kill or injure workers.