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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Explosion in a fuel cells research lab

Event

Event ID
1237
Quality
Description

An explosion occurred on the first floor of a research and development institute, injuring five people.The event was located in the fuelellstestng lab. The fire department was dispatched to the scene and extinguished the fire which followed the explosion 10 minutes later.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Asia
Country
South Korea
Date
Component involved
unknown
Failure mode
rupture & ignition
Initiating cause
unknown
Root causes
Unknown
Date entry in HIAD
25/12/2025

Facility

Application
Laboratory / R&D
Sub-application
Fuel cells testing laboratory
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

lab equipment

Location type
Confined
Location
unknown
Operational condition
UNKNOWN

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
5
Currency
Won
Property loss (onsite)
2.700.000
Post-event summary

Five workers suffered minor injuries in the accident. One of them suffered burns and the other four showed symptoms of smoke inhalation and were rushed to the hospital. It was confirmed that there were no serious injuries.
The property damage is estimated to be about 2.7 million won, and hydrogen fuel cell parts for testing and one test equipment were burned. No damage to major structures such as the exterior walls of the building.

Emergency action

The city fire department intervened in 8 minutes fro mthe alarm, and extinguished the fire in 5 minutes.
A total of 71 personnel (including 60 fire brigades, 7 police officers, and gas safety experts), along with 27 pieces of equipment, including pump trucks and tank trucks, were deployed to the scene to deal with the accident.

In-depth data

Probable IGNITION SOURCE
Explosion type

References

Sources categories
News
Reference & weblink

First part of the investigation report, downloadable from CSE Energy site
https://www.csenergy.com.au/news/cs-energy-releases-technical-report-in…
(accessed January 2026)