A Foxconn manufacturing plant located in Zhengzhou, China suffered heavy damage when a fire started in its central air conditioning system and quickly spread to several floors of the building. Fortunately, no casualties were reported during the incident.
The Foxconn Zhengzhou plant is famous one as it is the site where most Apple iPhones are manufactured. While the fire did managed to affect several floors of the complex, Foxconn claims that productivity output will not be affected.
According to Market Watch, local authorities are already investigating the cause of the fire. The Foxconn Zhengzhou factory is located on the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone, an industrial area where many manufacturing plants are also located.
Despite no casualty or injury were reported, the incident serves as a prime reminder when it comes to worker safety. There have been a handful of explosions and fire incidents that occurred in Foxconn factories in the past.
The most serious of these incidents occurred in 2011 when an explosion happened at an iPad 2 production facility located in Chengdu. The incident killed three workers and injured 15 others.
It cause of the explosion was traced back to combustible dust that were caught on fire with a duct. The incident in that Foxconn facility that occurred in 2011 dealt a major impact on the overall production of the Apple iPad.
Four months after the Chengdu incident, another Foxconn factory, this time in Shandong, was caught by fire. The incident was quickly contained and no casualty or injury related to the incident was reported.
Aside from these incidents like these, there were issues about worker suicides at some Foxconn factories. A riot also broke out of a Foxconn plant located in Taiyan way back in September 2012.
Following the surge of worker complaints, Foxconn said that it will raise worker wages as well as improve the work conditions on its facilities, according to Tech Crunch. Several years have passed and only minor incidents were reported over at some Foxconn factories.
However, the recent factory fire, although just a minor one, will raise questions from authorities regarding the changes Foxconn had made over the past years in order to improve the condition not only of its workers but also of its facilities.