A fire broke out at a Samsung SDI Co Ltd factory in China’s Tianjin city on Wednesday, which officials said came from stored waste products, mainly faulty batteries, Reuters reported. No casualties or damage to the plant were reported.
The plant was operated by the affiliate of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which had provided the mobile company with batteries for Galaxy Note7, the phone that gained infamy last year for repeatedly bursting into flames.
The fire broke out at the waste depository and not a production facility, SDI spokesperson Shin Yong-doo said. Tianjin fire department said on social media that the fire was caused by faulty lithium-ion batteries present inside the facility and some “half-finished products”. A total of 110 firefighters and 19 fire engines were sent to the location to douse the fire.
Samsung had launched the Galaxy Note7 in South Korea on August 19, but was forced to declare an international recall of 2.5 million units in September following several reports of the phone exploding. The company subsequently suspended the production of Note7 devices. Samsung SDI will supply batteries for the company’s upcoming Galaxy S8 device.
In January 2017, Samsung had said it believed that the batteries had caused its Galaxy Note7 handsets to overheat and catch fire. It said it had come to the conclusion after tests on thousands of devices ruled out any defect in its hardware or software.
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