Fatal fire at Apple supplier's factory in Shanghai kills eight

AppleInsider

A total of eight people, including two firefighters, died at a major fire at a Shanghai factory owned by Apple supplier Casetek on Thursday.

The fire at the Shanghai factory of Shengrui Electronic Technology on Thursday [via 163.com]

The fire at the factory, owned by Shengrui Electronic Technology, reportedly broke out at 1:30 pm China Standard Time (1:30am Eastern) on Thursday, and continued until Friday morning. A statement from the district government on Friday said a total of eight people were trapped in the fire, including two firefighters and six civilians.

The firefighters were said to have gone missing while performing an overnight search for people in stuck in the factory, reports the South China Morning Post. The eight people were confirmed dead on Friday morning.

The entire facility was engulfed by the fire over the course of the incident, and required the attendance of over 900 firefighters, 123 fire engines, and eight robots to fight the blaze.

Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire. As for its effects, the district government believes the fire hadn't caused significant air or water pollution to the local environment. The factory itself is located in Jinshan District, in southwest Shanghai.

Shengrui Electronic Company was acquired in 2020 by Casetek Group, itself owned by Pegatron. Casetek is known to be a producer of casings for Apple's MacBook lines as well as iPads, but it is unclear how much of an impact the fire at Casetek's subsidiary will have on Apple's supply chain at this time.


Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.

tommikele

How long until someone in the tech media or people commenting start claiming Apple has some responsibility with this?

sflocal

I remember years ago of a building that caught fire which manufactured the aluminum cases for Apple, with the problem being igniting of the fine aluminum dust in the factory that wasn't being properly filtered?  I wonder if this is the same factory, or company.  It sounds familiar.

Beats

This is so sad.

iKnockoff morons will claim Apple did this. Those people are scum and stupid as sh**. 

seanj

“Fatal Apple supplier factory fire in Shanghai kills eight”...
that’s really garbled English, how is the apple fatal, is it poisonous? Is so heavy if it falls on your head it will kill you?

Reading the story;
”Fatal fire at an Apple supplier’s factory in Shanghai kills eight”
would be a more accurate headline.

wizard69

seanj said:

“Fatal Apple supplier factory fire in Shanghai kills eight”...
that’s really garbled English, how is the apple fatal, is it poisonous? Is so heavy if it falls on your head it will kill you?

Reading the story;
”Fatal fire at an Apple supplier’s factory in Shanghai kills eight”
would be a more accurate headline.

Headlines from the same imbeciles that use the phrase "fully semi-automatic" to twists minds into believing something that isn't the case at all.   Even then we don't even know if this factory supplies Apple with anything.    So at best there has been a fire in China leading to fatalities and is almost certainly not the only fire last night world wide.

Fires are a terrible way to die, so lets not forget that.   I have two friends that work for their local volunteer fire departments and they have horror stories you don't want to hear.    Hopefully the details will be coming shortly.

wizard69

tommikele said:

How long until someone in the tech media or people commenting start claiming Apple has some responsibility with this?

Well Apple is the one doing business in China and other countries where their only concern is low cost.   In this regard my opinion of Apple has changed dramatically in the last couple of years, I really don't believe they give a damn about the people building their hardware.   Basically they are a forked tongued devil when it comes to worker treatment.

sflocal

wizard69 said:

tommikele said:

How long until someone in the tech media or people commenting start claiming Apple has some responsibility with this?

Well Apple is the one doing business in China and other countries where their only concern is low cost.   In this regard my opinion of Apple has changed dramatically in the last couple of years, I really don't believe they give a damn about the people building their hardware.   Basically they are a forked tongued devil when it comes to worker treatment.

*yawn*

tokyojimu

sflocal said:

I remember years ago of a building that caught fire which manufactured the aluminum cases for Apple, with the problem being igniting of the fine aluminum dust in the factory that wasn't being properly filtered?  I wonder if this is the same factory, or company.  It sounds familiar.

No, that factory explosion was in Chengdu. 

Beats

Here’s a headline for the media:

”Apple user kills eight in mass shooting”

frantisek

seanj said:

“Fatal Apple supplier factory fire in Shanghai kills eight”...
that’s really garbled English, how is the apple fatal, is it poisonous? Is so heavy if it falls on your head it will kill you?

Reading the story;
”Fatal fire at an Apple supplier’s factory in Shanghai kills eight”
would be a more accurate headline.

And what about to: Fire at aluminum cases producer in China kills eight. Can affect Apple.

Or skip Apple at all in title: Fire at aluminum cases producer in China kills eight. Blessing to those 8.

lkrupp

tommikele said:

How long until someone in the tech media or people commenting start claiming Apple has some responsibility with this?

It didn’t take long did it. Within 5 posts of your post we have @Wizard69 claiming just that. I’m surprised he didn’t include the ‘slave labor’ bullshit that ilk usually trots out.

lkrupp

wizard69 said:

tommikele said:

How long until someone in the tech media or people commenting start claiming Apple has some responsibility with this?

Well Apple is the one doing business in China and other countries where their only concern is low cost.   In this regard my opinion of Apple has changed dramatically in the last couple of years, I really don't believe they give a damn about the people building their hardware.   Basically they are a forked tongued devil when it comes to worker treatment.

So who do you plan to buy your next smartphone, TV, stereo, computer from? Have you sold all your Apple gear yet? If you think Apple are a ‘forked tongued devil’ what are your opinions of other manufacturers?

Yeah, I know, you won’t respond but I had to ask. 

Kuyangkoh

HEADLINE are nothing more than eye catching to read the story.....like “Original Fake” what??? Its fake why put the word original 

GeorgeBMac

Beats said:

Here’s a headline for the media:

”Apple user kills eight in mass shooting”

Uh Oh!  Somebody triggered the gun nuts!

dewme

Keying in on the "Apple" aspect of this is disingenuous. If Steve Jobs put BP gasoline in his car back when BP had the massive disaster in the gulf we'd have seen "Apple CEOs fuel supplier suffers massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Multiple fatalities reported!" News at 11...

ITGUYINSD

tommikele said:

How long until someone in the tech media or people commenting start claiming Apple has some responsibility with this?

Does your own post count since you're the 1st to bring up the idea/topic?

DangDave

We should be asking Malcolm Owen to think before he creates misleading headlines for his articles, of course unless his intent was to stir up AppleInsider readers and posters for the fun of it?

MalcolmOwen

DangDave said:

We should be asking Malcolm Owen to think before he creates misleading headlines for his articles, of course unless his intent was to stir up AppleInsider readers and posters for the fun of it?

My apologies if it seems that the headline is misleading, as it didn't seem that way to me at the time of writing. I have tweaked the headline to make it a little more readable. 

alanh

seanj said:

“Fatal Apple supplier factory fire in Shanghai kills eight”...
that’s really garbled English, how is the apple fatal, is it poisonous? Is so heavy if it falls on your head it will kill you?

Reading the story;
”Fatal fire at an Apple supplier’s factory in Shanghai kills eight”
would be a more accurate headline.

Your advice was taken!

harrywinter

Tragic for the six civilians and two firefighters. 

Hopefully there's a proper investigation into this one. 🙏