On 4 March, in Changwon province, South Korea, two refrigerated containers carrying US-imported oranges caught fire in separate incidents at local ports. These oranges had undergone pesticide treatment as part of standard quarantine and disinfection protocols for agricultural imports. The first fire broke out around 10:48 am at Youngwon New Port, where efforts to douse the flames proved challenging. It took 29 firefighters nearly two hours to extinguish the fire, resulting in the destruction of 978 boxes of oranges, with damages estimated at KRW 50 million (approximately US$37,494).
A second incident occurred the same day, damaging a container with 500 boxes of oranges stored in a warehouse at another port in Changwon, with losses around KRW 26 million (US$19,492). Initial investigations suggested a short circuit in the container's ventilator as the potential cause. However, further analysis pointed towards ethyl formate, a highly flammable pesticide used in quarantine procedures, as a likely contributor to the rapid spread of the fire.
Source: container-news.com