Fire at Korea Zinc Onsan Smelter ESS Center, Ulsan, South Korea

What happened

In August 2023 a fire broke out inside a two-storey indoor battery energy storage facility used for peak shaving at the Korea Zinc Onsan Smelter ESS Center (Plant 1) in Onsan-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, South Korea, operated and owned by Korea Zinc. The fire started in the morning and fire services declared a level one emergency response, deploying all available equipment and personnel from the local fire department. Firefighters used smoke extraction vehicles to clear smoke from the building, then drilled openings into the structure so that remote controlled, unmanned water cannons could apply water directly to the fire.

More than seven hours after ignition, firefighting was still in progress. Reports noted that once a fire starts in this type of battery storage system it tends to continue burning until the stored energy is consumed, making full suppression difficult. No information on injuries, cause or final extinguishment time was available at the time of reporting.

Contributing factors

No contributing factors were stated in the source. Reporting at the time noted only the general difficulty of suppressing fires in enclosed lithium-ion battery installations.

Lessons learned

1. Fires in indoor lithium-ion battery installations can burn for many hours until stored energy is consumed, so plan incident command and water supply for extended operations.
2. Pre-agree tactics with fire services for enclosed battery sites, including remote water cannons and controlled drilling to reach the fire without entering.
3. Design battery storage buildings with access points, smoke extraction and clear layout marking to support external firefighting.

More lessons on fire suppression and firefighting, from every incident on the register.

Not yet known

• Cause of the fire
• Injuries if any
• Final extinguishment time
• Battery model and age

This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.

Source

yna.co.kr