The fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in Daejeon was fully extinguished at about 6 p.m. on the 27th, 22 hours after it broke out. Fire and police authorities will conduct a joint forensics inspection and investigate the exact cause and the scale of the damage.
The National Fire Agency said it declared the NIRS fire completely out that day, lifted the Central Emergency Rescue Control Group, and switched operations to the situation response team.
As confirmed so far, one person suffered a first-degree burn and is classified as having a minor injury. About 100 people who were nearby at the time of the fire evacuated on their own. Property damage includes part of the building and computer equipment. To prevent re-ignition, fire authorities plan to submerge the problematic lithium-ion batteries in a firefighting water tank for two to three days.
Kim Seung-ryong, acting commissioner of the National Fire Agency, said, "I am deeply grateful to the firefighters who devoted themselves to responding to this fire and to officials of related agencies," and added, "We will do our best to support recovery in cooperation with related agencies so that public inconvenience caused by this fire can be resolved quickly."
According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, at about 8:15 p.m. the previous day, a fire broke out due to a lithium-ion battery explosion in the fifth-floor computer room at the NIRS. While 13 workers were replacing lithium batteries, a spark from one battery spread into a fire.