Two refrigerated containers filled with oranges imported from the US burst into flames in two separate incidents in ports in South Korea’s Changwon province on 4 March.
The oranges had been sprayed with pesticide as part of quarantine and disinfection procedures for imported agricultural products.
In the first incident, around 10.48 am (local time), smoke was seen coming from the container in Youngwon New Port. Quickly, the fire intensified, despite port staff’s efforts to contain the flames.
Twenty-nine firefighters took nearly two hours to extinguish the flames, which destroyed the whole container and the oranges inside 978 boxes. The loss was estimated at KRW50 million (US$37,494).
Changwon’s fire department disclosed that on the same day, a fire also damaged another container holding 500 boxes of imported oranges, in a warehouse in another port in the province. The loss was estimated at KRW26 million (US$19,492).
It was initially thought that the fires were caused by a short circuit in the ventilator on the containers.
However, investigators believe that ethyl formate, the pesticide mainly used in quarantine operations could have resulted in the fire spreading quickly, as the pesticide is highly flammable.