Al Jazeera :
A deadly fire at a South Korean lithium battery factory in June broke out as the company raced to meet a deadline without taking action to address signs of dangerous quality failures, police said.
At least 23 people were killed at the Aricell lithium battery plant during the massive blaze, in one of the country’s worst industrial disasters in years.
Manufacture Aricell, which also produces batteries for South Korea’s military, had failed a quality inspection in April and subsequently increased production to make up the backlog, police official Kim Jong-min said on Friday.
It hired temporary and unskilled workers, contributing to a jump in product defect rates, including overheating of finished batteries, but did not take action to contain safety risks, Kim said.
The company was trying to produce 5,000 batteries a day and “started excessive manufacturing”, police added.