23 Dead or Missing in Hwaseong Plant Fire... 5 Identified as Korean

Only 2 of the Deceased Identified

Among the total 23 deceased and missing persons from the fire at the Arisel factory, a primary battery manufacturer in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi Province, 5 are confirmed to be Korean nationals.

On the 25th, firefighters are searching for missing persons at the scene of a fire at a primary battery manufacturing factory in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

According to the police on the 25th, there are 22 confirmed deaths and 1 missing person. By nationality, there are 5 Koreans, 17 Chinese, and 1 Laotian. Among the Koreans, one person is a naturalized citizen who acquired Korean nationality from China. The police completed the nationality classification of the deceased and missing persons after multiple verification processes based on the worker roster and other data. This differs somewhat from the information briefed by the fire authorities the previous day.

Initially, the fire authorities reported that among the 22 deceased, there were 2 Koreans, 18 Chinese, 1 Laotian, and 1 unidentified person. They also explained that the search was ongoing due to the confirmation of 1 additional missing person.

Earlier, a fire broke out at 10:31 a.m. the previous day on the second floor of Building 3 at the Arisel factory, resulting in 22 deaths and 8 people sustaining serious to moderate injuries. One person remains missing. Due to severe damage to the recovered bodies, only the identities of 2 out of the 22 deceased have been confirmed so far.