Fire Breaks Out at Samsung Factory in China

The last thing Samsung needs at the moment is another battery fire debacle. But here we are.

According to Reuters, a "minor" fire broke out Wednesday at a Samsung SDI factory in Tianjin, China. Fortunately, there were no casualties and the fire, which was reportedly set off by discarded batteries, will not have a significant impact on the plant's operations.

Samsung SDI, as you may recall, is a Samsung affiliate, and one of the major suppliers of faulty batteries for the Note 7 that caused the devices to catch fire and blow up.

Samsung SDI did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment about the fire, but a spokesperson for the Samsung affiliate told Reuters that the incident occurred in the factory's waste area, not on the production line.

On social media, however, the Tianjin fire department placed the blame on batteries inside the plant.

The "material that caught fire was lithium batteries inside the production workshops and some half-finished products," the department wrote on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter. The department dispatched 110 firefighters and 19 trucks to the scene, and they quickly put out the fire.

The incident comes after Samsung last month announced the findings of its investigation into the fires and explosions that prompted its Note 7 recall last year. The investigation revealed that some batteries were sized wrong, causing the overheating, and others had manufacturing problems.

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