Videos and photos from the scene showed thick gray smoke billowing from the complex and some workers jumping from a building.
South Korean rescue workers on Saturday (Mar 21) recovered 10 bodies from the charred wreckage of an auto parts factory in the central city of Daejeon, where a blaze likely triggered by an explosion injured at least 59 others and left four missing.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said 25 people were seriously injured but officials didn’t immediately confirm whether any were in life-threatening condition.
“As of 5 am this morning, we understand that 10 are dead, 25 are seriously injured, and four are still missing,” an official from the interior ministry’s department that handles fires and other disasters told AFP.
“We also understand that 34 have been injured but not in a serious condition,” he added.
More than 500 firefighters, police and emergency personnel were deployed to contain the fire and conduct rescue operations after the fire broke out Friday afternoon.
Videos and photos from the scene showed thick gray smoke billowing from the complex and some workers jumping from a building.
Nam Deuk-woo, fire chief of the city’s Daedeok district, said the blaze destroyed a factory building that firefighters initially could not enter over fears it might collapse.
Searches for the missing workers began late Friday after officials deployed unmanned firefighting robots to cool the structure and conducted a safety inspection.
The fire was reported at about 1.18 pm. A total of 170 workers were in the plant when the fire started, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
One of the dead was found on the second floor of the factory and nine others on the third floor, Yonhap reported, citing authorities.
The safety ministry said on Saturday in a statement the fire had been contained since 11.48 pm on Friday.
Nam said the cause was not immediately known, but the blaze appeared to have spread rapidly, with witnesses reporting an explosion.
Firefighters focused on preventing the blaze from spreading to an adjacent facility and removing chemicals from the site. Nam said workers recovered more than 100 kg of highly reactive chemicals from the site.
Some people were injured when they jumped from the building to escape, while others suffered from smoke inhalation, Nam said.
About 120 vehicles and pieces of equipment including aircraft, an unmanned water cannon vehicle and two firefighting robots for hard-to-reach areas, were deployed along with hundreds of personnel.
Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/south-korea-auto-parts-factory-fire-killed-6008126
