Foxconn is burning yet again. Deep black smoke was seen coming out of a Foxconn factory in Yantai, a city in the northeastern Shandong Province of China, as a result from a serious fire. Luckily, the fire was put out before the plant suffered any casualties.
Remember, Foxconn had just suffered an explosion that killed multiple people at their Chengdu factory earlier this year. Going through another explosion and fire and deaths would have been disastrous for the contentious company. The smoke started billowing from the building around 10.26am local time and was either caused by “improper operation of workmanship on colour spraying” (according to Chinese media) or electrical cables on the rooftop catching fire (according to Reuters). It looked like the fire could’ve turned for the worst but the fire department managed to put out the fire within 30 minutes. Phew.
There have been no reported deaths but it again raises questions about the safety levels of these factories. The Yantai factory, which is Foxconn’s second largest in China, is made up of 80,000 workers and produces PCs, Sony laptops, computer parts, printers and more. Apple products are not produced at this Foxconn location (they’re mainly at Shenzhen and Chengdu). [Reuters, MIC Gadget, TechCrunch]