THIS is the horror moment a box of batteries exploded as workers desperately tried to battle the flames before the inferno killed 23.
Footage shows workers in the Hwaseong warehouse near Seoul, South Korea reacting as sparks flew across their store room on Monday.
They battled the flames as best as they could, before the billowing grey smoke transformed into raging fire.
The horrific 46-second-long video shows gloved workers using a fire extinguisher in an attempt to put out the flames.
When the fire started, sparks burst and white smoke rose, followed by several explosions from piles of batteries.
The workers are seen trying to contain the flame with extinguishers but failed, and the factory room was soon engulfed in smoke.
Dozens of cardboard boxes were also victim to the scenes and at least four men can be seen running away from the blaze as it spread.
Fire spread in the burning building so intensely on Monday that 23 workers died, but the boss insists they complied with safety regulations.
The deadly fire is thought to have started after a series of highly flammable battery cells exploded inside the warehouse’s second floor.
The factory housed a staggering 35,000 lithium batteries and fire officials suspect those that died likely lost consciousness and succumbed within seconds.
It is thought that over 67 employees were inside the lithium battery plant, owned by South Korean Aricell, when explosions first erupted.
Firefighters arrived at the scene with search dogs to comb through the site, and found the last person who had been unaccounted for, raising the total death toll to 23.
Seventeen of these were Chinese, one was from Laos and the rest were South Korean, most being temporary workers.
Many of the bodies remain unidentified.
Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan apologised to everyone who had been affected.
“We will be conscientiously taking part in the investigation by authorities and will do our best to determine the cause of the accident and to take measures to prevent a repeat of such an accident.”
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said: “I ask the ministries of labour and industry and the National Fire Agency to conduct an urgent safety inspection and, where there is concern of an accident, take immediate measures.”
Aricell CEO, Park, said they had had fully complied with safety procedures and training, but more than half of the 103 workers at the factory, including some of those killed, were contract workers dispatched by a manpower company.
A South Korean labour ministry official is investigating whether Aricell complied with safety regulations and gave adequate safety training for temporary foreign workers.
The company, which was established in 2020, makes lithium primary batteries for sensors and radio communication devices and is thought to have 48 full-time employees.
