Samsung chip plant in Korea suffers fire
A fire broke out in one of Samsung's chip plants in South Korea late Sunday that was extinguished before dawn on Monday.
The fire started at 11:18 pm on Sunday at the tech giant's plant in Hwaseong, south of the capital Seoul, and was put out in two and a half hours, Samsung said.
There were no casualties and production at the plant has not been affected, the company said. The fire broke out at a wastewater processing facility within the plant that is automated and away from production lines.
Samsung said it would cooperate with fire authorities to investigate the precise cause of the fire.
The accident comes at a time of heightened concern by the conglomerate due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Last week, the company tightened coronavirus screening procedures for its chip plants in South Korea, requiring employees to answer weekly, online self-examination questions regarding the outbreak.
Late Friday, the tech giant said it would temporarily shift smartphone production at its Gumi plant to its factories in Vietnam after another coronavirus case was discovered there. A total of five Samsung employees have been confirmed to have contracted the virus so far.
As of Monday, South Korea has 7,382 novel coronavirus cases with 51 dead. The majority of cases continue to come from the city of Daegu and are linked to congregations of Shincheonji, a religious organisation based there.
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