Fire halts operations at Tata’s iPhone plant in India

CHENNAI: Firefighters are battling a blaze that has halted production at a crucial Tata Electronics plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, whose components the company uses in the iPhone. The fire broke out on Saturday, but no casualties have been reported so far.

The extent of the damage was not immediately known, but the fire broke out near one building that will soon start rolling out full smartphones. Tata Electronics, one of the main contract manufacturers of iPhones with Foxconn, said it’s exploring the cause of the fire and is ensuring complete safety measures.

“There was a fire incident,” confirmed a Tata Electronics spokesperson saying that all measures have been taken to secure people in the facility. The fire led to a building collapse. Still, authorities haven’t yet gauged the full scale of the damage.

J. Saravanan, the district in charge of industrial safety, said the area remains inaccessible to a view and that it would take at least one day for the contents inside to cool before further investigations could be conducted.

Manufacturing was suspended, and employees were sent home for the day due to the chemical accident. It is unclear whether adjacent factories where assembly of cell phones was scheduled to be done before the end of the year was affected.

Apple has not released a statement regarding the issue. Firefighters along with over ten rescue vehicles are trying to douse the flames, which have been described to have begun in a room with chemicals inside.