A fire that broke out at Air Liquide Far Eastern Ltd’s (ALFE, 亞東工業氣體) plant in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) yesterday morning was likely caused by malfunctioning transformer units, the Hsinchu Fire Bureau said.

The blaze was extinguished at about 12:30pm, and no injuries were reported, the fire bureau said.

Seventy firefighters and 20 trucks were deployed to the site to put out the fire, which likely stemmed from overheating transformer equipment on the first floor of the six-floor ALFE building before spreading to the second floor, the bureau said based on a preliminary investigation.

Lin Tsai-hsuan (林采煖), an assistant manager at ALFE, said that staff in the building evacuated after the fire was reported at about 10am.

The ALFE facility at the Hsinchu Science Park is nearing completion after construction began in November 2020, she said, adding that the site is still in its testing phase.

The joint venture between France’s Air Liquide SA and Taiwan’s Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) provides natural gas supplies and services for Taiwanese electronics and medical industries, among others, in addition to homes.

The Hsinchu plant is being built to meet growing demand for natural gas among Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturers, Lin said.

Hsinchu Science Park Bureau Deputy Director-General Chen Shu-chu (陳淑珠) said the fire caused a temporary voltage drop at the park, but no power outage occurred.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) said that operations at its Hsinchu site were not affected by the incident, while Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) said its production was only partially interrupted, as some of its equipment did not have generators as backup.

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