An explosion and fire of unknown origin occurred at Hanwha Aerospace in Daejeon, prompting Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon to dispatch Ryu Hyun-cheol, head of the Occupational Safety and Health Agency, to the scene and issue an urgent directive for a swift response.
In response to Minister Kim's instructions, the Ministry of Labor established both a Central Industrial Accident Response Headquarters and a Regional Industrial Accident Response Headquarters at the Daejeon Regional Employment and Labor Office on June 1. Ryu will support a rapid and systematic response to the incident.
Immediately following the explosion, the head of the Regional Industrial Accident Response Headquarters, along with labor inspectors, arrived at the site to implement a work stoppage for the affected operations.
The ministry plans to thoroughly investigate the structural causes of the incident and conduct prompt and strict supervision and investigation of the accident.
Minister Kim expressed condolences to the workers who lost their lives in the accident, stating, "We will do our utmost for a swift and rigorous response to the incident and to prevent secondary accidents."
The explosion occurred at 10:59 a.m. in a cleaning room within the Hanwha Aerospace weapons manufacturing facility. Fire authorities issued a Level 1 response at 11:17 a.m. and managed to control the blaze within 32 minutes, declaring it fully extinguished by 1:07 p.m. As of 1:30 p.m., five people had died, one was seriously injured, and another sustained minor injuries.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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