Smoke and flame shot from Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar’s plant in Northern Taiwan last night. The source of the fire was located at the waste water tank next to the parking lot at B2 (second level in the basement) in the company’s N3 plant. The fire started at around 6 PM and was soon under control. There were zero casualties, no one was wounded. The fire has no impact on the company finances and sales.

The loss caused by the fire will be covered by insurance, therefore the actual impact is minimal, according to Epistar. (Photo Courtesy of LEDinside)

Epistar’s N3 building is located in Hsinchu Industrial Park in Northern Taiwan. The fire was controlled, but at one point broke out again and burned on till it was under control at around ten in the evening. The fire destroyed the waste fluid area, parking lots and office spaces from two floors underground to fourth floor.

The loss caused by the fire will be covered by insurance, therefore the actual impact is minimal, according to Epistar.

Epistar’s N3 plant is also the headquarters of the company, while the main source of the fire located in the waste fluid storage tank is underground. The main cause of the accident is under investigation, but the smoke and fire at waste fluid storage area was caused by spontaneous combustion. Since the zone affected by the fire is not the manufacturing area for EPI-wafers, the fire didn’t impact the company’s EPI-wafer production capacity. All staff were quickly evacuated and the local firefighters also arrived promptly to put out the fire.

The company’s production capacity is scattered in different plants within Hsinchu Industrial Park, including N1, N2, N5 and N8. The N3 plant closely situates next to N8 and the firefighters successfully stopped the fire from damaging N8 plant’s crucial production line.

The fire is under control now. Epistar will provide information including recovery time and other details once the investigation is completed.

As LEDinside previously reported, the company has restructured its product portfolio, which led to lowered utilization rates. Therefore the actual impact the fire has to the company is actually quite mild.