A lithium-ion battery fire at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon on the night of the 26th caused a large-scale shutdown of key government computer services. The fire is known to have occurred during an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) battery replacement.
According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the National Fire Agency on the 27th, the fire broke out at around 8:20 p.m. on the 26th in the 5th-floor computer room of the agency in Hwaam-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, with a 119 call reporting a lithium-ion battery explosion received by fire authorities.
The fire occurred while power was being cut to replace the batteries, and the battery manufacturer is known to be LG Energy Solution.
Although fire authorities rushed to the scene and began extinguishing efforts immediately after the report, the blaze, caused by a lithium-ion battery explosion, was not easily contained due to its nature. Lithium-ion batteries do not easily go out until the internal chemical reaction is completely finished.
There were a total of 192 lithium-ion battery packs in the computer room, most of which were burned. The fire authorities deployed 91 personnel and 31 pieces of equipment, but they faced difficulties in suppression as they minimized the use of water to protect servers and computer equipment.
One worker sustained first-degree burns to the face and arm in the course of the work, and about 100 employees in the office were evacuated urgently.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said that the Daejeon headquarters' computer network was halted due to the fire that day, suspending numerous government services. The damage was tallied at 12 Grade 1 core services and 58 Grade 2 services. Among them are major civil service portals such as mobile ID, e-People, and Government24, as well as the websites of ministries including the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The government mailing system is also experiencing access delays.
Minister Yun Ho-jung of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety ordered, "Extinguish the fire quickly and put human safety first, but mobilize all available resources to restore the government service outage."