S.Korea battery maker apologises for deadly fire but says it complied with safety rules | U.S. & World [Video]

By Hyunsu Yim, Dogyun Kim and Daewoung Kim

HWASEONG, South Korea (Reuters) -The CEO of a South Korean lithium battery manufacturer apologised on Tuesday following a massive factory fire that killed 23 workers, but said the company had complied with all required safety precautions and training.

The fire on Monday, which began at a factory with 35,000 lithium batteries, produced thick smoke that spread quickly and the workers inside the second-floor location likely lost consciousness and succumbed within seconds, fire officials said.

Firefighters with search dogs combed the gutted structure on Tuesday in Hwaseong, an industrial cluster southwest of the capital Seoul, and found the last person who had been unaccounted for, raising the death toll to 23.

Seventeen of those who died were Chinese, and one was Laotian. The rest were South Koreans.

Most of them were temporary workers at the plant which is run by South Korea-based Aricell, majority-owned by S-Connect.

Hundreds of thousands of migrant …