Lithium-ion ESS warehouse fire at Cheongwon Buyong Agro-Industrial Complex, Sejong, South Korea

A fire broke out at around 08:31 on 28 July 2018 in a battery storage warehouse attached to a paper production factory in the Cheongwon Buyong Agro-Industrial Complex, Bugang-myeon, Sejong, South Korea. The warehouse held roughly 2,000 lithium-ion battery packs, each weighing 57 kg, manufactured by Samsung SDI, used in a large energy storage system (ESS) that stored power overnight for use during peak daytime demand. Flames and yellow smoke, attributed to lithium-ion cells reacting to high heat, made access difficult, and firefighters were also concerned about possible explosion or building collapse. Around 60 firefighters with 23 vehicles, including a remote-controlled wall-breaching water cannon truck and articulated ladder trucks, fought the fire for about seven hours before it was declared extinguished around 15:30. The warehouse building, covering 840 square metres, was destroyed, but the fire did not spread to the adjoining 150,000 square metre paper factory. No injuries were reported. The cause and financial losses were under investigation at the time of reporting.

The fire occurred in an enclosed warehouse housing around 2,000 lithium-ion battery packs, which produced heavy smoke and heat that hampered firefighting access. The enclosed structure raised concerns about explosion and collapse, requiring specialised remote firefighting equipment to breach the walls and apply water directly to the source. The system was reported as newly installed at the time of the incident, though the source does not state whether it was still in a commissioning phase.

1. Lithium-ion ESS storage buildings should be designed with adequate fire compartmentalisation to prevent fire spread to adjacent industrial facilities.
2. Enclosed battery warehouses can create access and ventilation problems for conventional firefighting, so responders may need remote-controlled or wall-breaching equipment for large-scale lithium-ion fires.
3. Sites storing large quantities of packaged battery modules in bulk, rather than installed in enclosures with integrated fire suppression, may pose elevated thermal runaway propagation risk and warrant specific storage and suppression protocols.
4. Where a system is newly installed, operators should ensure early monitoring and inspection regimes are in place, as the cause of early-life failures is not always established quickly.

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