01
Jul
According to Kim, workers who fled the blaze said the fire broke out when a single battery cell caught fire, triggering a series of explosions among some of the 35,000 lithium battery cells stored on the second floor of the factory. Fires can occur in lithium batteries when the internal layers are compressed, causing a short circuit. The layers can be compressed by a sudden impact, such as during a vehicle collision, or by the gradual swelling of the batteries from regular use. Lithium is a metal that can store large amounts of energy in a small space, which is…