Three dead after huge fire at Huawei facility in China

Firefighters put out blaze at under-construction research building in southern city of Dongguan.

Huawei logo/Electronics Expo/Beijing Aug. 2019
Huawei has a large sprawling office complex in Dongguan [File: Thomas Peter/Reuters]

Three people have been found dead after a huge fire broke out at an unfinished research facility of Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies in southern China, local authorities said on Friday.

The fire, in the industrial city of Dongguan, started at the building still under construction on Alishan Road, where the company is developing a research base, according to the city government.

The blaze was extinguished after 140 firefighters were called to the scene, the local fire brigade said in a separate statement.

Footage broadcast online by state media CCTV showed dark clouds of smoke billowing out of a blue and white building near Songshan Lake.

Huawei’s spokesperson told the AFP news agency the company could not yet provide details on the fire.

The building on fire is a “steel structure, and has not yet been put to use”, the Dongguan government said in a statement.

It was close to a Huawei research lab and was not being used when the incident happened, said the management committee of Dongguan’s Songshan Lake area.

The lab mainly conducts research into materials as well as testing for 4G and 5G antennas related to Huawei’s base station business, a source familiar with the matter said.

Earlier, the city’s fire-rescue department said the main material burning was sound-absorbing cotton.

Huawei’s main office campus is in the southern city of Shenzhen, but it has a large sprawling office complex in nearby Dongguan.

Source: News Agencies