back to article Samsung battery factory bursts into flame in touching Note 7 tribute

The factory tasked with producing and later recycling the batteries for the self-detonating Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has itself fallen victim to a fire. Defective batteries and other faulty hardware stored in a recycling center went up in smoke at the Samsung SDI facility in Wuqing, Tianjin, in China. No injuries were reported, …

  1. thondwe

    Fake News

    Surely this can't be true can it?!

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Fake News

      It is very true.

      C.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Fake News

        The link says a minor fire. If it needed 19 fire engines I'd hate to see their idea of a major fire.

        1. Shooter
          Joke

          Re: Minor fire

          That's what is known over here as a Chinese fire drill.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Minor fire

            > That's what is known over here as a Chinese fire drill.

            One of those caught fire on a train yesterday.

            http://news.sky.com/story/overheating-drill-sparks-fire-on-train-at-dalston-kingsland-station-10760072

        2. Tom 64
          Mushroom

          Re: Fake News

          "The link says a minor fire. If it needed 19 fire engines I'd hate to see their idea of a major fire."

          A Major fire in China would look something like this:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO1q3HwB0y0

          1. BillG
            Windows

            Re: Fake News

            A Major fire in China would look something like this:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO1q3HwB0y0

            Looks like somebody rear-ended a Pinto.

        3. Bitbeisser
          Mushroom

          Re: Fake News

          >The link says a minor fire. If it needed 19 fire engines I'd hate to see their idea of a major fire.

          Something like this probably will qualify

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Tianjin_explosions

        4. Richard Boyce

          Re: Fake News

          It's possible the 19 were required to prevent it becoming major.

        5. Pat Harkin

          Re: Fake News

          Well, they're lithium batteries. When the first engine sprayed water on the minor fire it sort of didn't go out so thet got a second unit, then another 2 and another 4 and another 8 and then they ran out of engines.

          1. AndyS

            Re: Fake News

            Pat, li-ion batteries don't go on fire when they get wet, and the recommended action in the case of a li-ion fire is to douse it with large amounts of water (or place it in a bucket) to cool the surrounding cells and any other combustibles and stop the fire spreading. See the FAA document here.

            There is this odd urban myth that just because it has lithium in it, it will spontaneously combust when it gets wet, but this simply isn't true. The quantities of metallic lithium are very small, and very well sealed in plastic etc.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Fake News

            Pat, looks like the local firemen are down voting your comment.

      2. BillG
        Flame

        Re: Fake News

        PLEASE... El Reg... give us an icon for irony!

        1. Blitterbug

          Re: give us an icon for irony!

          I agree - closest we have is facepalm. Close but no cigar.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        It is very true.

        Nah, I still don't believe it - just too perfect to be true.

    2. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

      Re: Fake News

      It looks as if it is highly Current.

    3. Colabroad
      Joke

      Re: Fake News

      ...and don't call me Shirley!

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Fake News

      You couldn't make something like this up!

      1. Rich 11

        Re: Fake News

        You couldn't make something like this up!

        Challenge accepted!

    5. macjules

      Re: Fake News

      Wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow they are going to announce that the company making the iPhone screens had all its windows broken in an unexpected earth tremor. The official spokesperson said "it was as though someone put our factory in their back pocket".

      1. dmacleo

        Re: Fake News

        HA well done, kudos

  2. JamesSmith1

    This guy may have been involved. http://www.techtree.com/sites/default/files/2016/9/11.jpg

    1. veti Silver badge
      1. Pedigree-Pete
        Happy

        Billy Joel.

        Thanks for the link veti, also caught the follow on "Piano Man". Clearly a slow Friday. PP

  3. David Webb

    Confused

    Is this an actual case of Irony which can be explained to Americans?

    1. cd

      Re: Confused

      We understood Tony Blair, what's the concern?

      1. Number6

        Re: Confused

        If you understood him then please explain all, as none of us did.

        1. David Webb

          Re: Confused

          You can explain Tony in one word made from the letters of his surname, Liar. Though I did laugh at Number6's comment, I may be obtaining a sense of humour.

      2. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

        Re: Confused

        "We understood Tony Blair, what's the concern?"

        Irony, and a bad joke are not the same thing!

    2. DNTP

      Re: Irony

      As an American I understand irony very well, which is ironic because many Americans do not understand irony, despite the irony of irony itself being a trendy means of expression although ironically, it is often interpreted as a counter-cultural viewpoint.

      1. paulll

        Re: Irony

        "As an American I understand irony very well, which is ironic because many Americans do not understand irony,"

        Somewhat ironically, that's, "peculiar," not, "ironic."

  4. ma1010
    Joke

    More corporate arrogance?

    ...Samsung has now seen its phones, washing machines, financial losses, and factories all explode in various ways. Also execs were caught in a massive corruption scandal.

    I've heard that arrogant corporations have a tendency to self-destruct. It looks like Samsung is taking that to heart and in a rather literal fashion.

  5. Oengus

    Ironic

    To see this just 48 hours after seeing a commercial for Samsung batteries advertising how much effort they had put into research and development to make their batteries safer...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ironic

      They are! This is a high stakes game of probability, and they made the first move with an in-house fire. By having a great disaster themselves, the probability that further occurrences of similar events is greatly reduced. It happens all the time. I once missed getting hit by a speeding small truck that blew through a stop light, and the car directly behind me was T-boned. I just laughed and unhooked my seat belt for the remainder of the ride, because; luck was with me and the probability of having another accident on the way back was now a HUGE improbability.

      It's maths, baby. Get you sum!

      1. Adrian 4

        Re: Ironic

        Upvoted for poorly appreciated sarcasm

        1. Unicornpiss
          Coat

          Re: Ironic

          Li-rONic.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Ironic

            Pre-disastered batteries...safest kind.

            1. lglethal Silver badge
              Joke

              Re: Ironic

              Just to be clear for all the Americans, when we mention Irony, we arent talking about the Iron content of the batteries. Just wanted to make sure we are all on the same page here...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Ironic

        I wasn't great at math, but I do remember from the Probabilities course that the probability at a throw of a dice is not influenced by the previous throws. Likewise, avoiding (or having) a car accident does not change the accident probability for the rest of the journey.

        Unless, of course, you unbuckle your seatbelt, which will DEFINITELY increase your risk of injury should you have an accident.

        1. David Nash Silver badge

          Re: Ironic

          probability at a throw of a dice is not influenced by the previous throws...

          Yeah, you shouldn't need to explain that, especially here!

        2. veti Silver badge

          Re: Ironic

          However, for all we know (to the best of my knowledge there's no good research on the subject) - unbuckling your seatbelt may also drastically reduce your chances of having an accident.

          When I was in school, I had "roadcraft" lessons given by an insurance investigator. He liked to say that if you really wanted to cut the accident rate on the roads, what you should do is (1) ban all drivers'-side seatbelts, and (2) mandate instead a six-inch spike sticking out of the steering column at the driver's chest. That, he opined, would cut the total accident rate by at least 90%.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Ironic

            Yeah, you shouldn't need to explain that, especially here!

            You might. I got 6 upvotes for badly quoting from the Robin Williams film The World According to Garp (in the film he was looking at a house to buy and a cropduster flew into the front of it fucking the appearance, but possibly not the structure (it was a big wooden house) and he said something along the lines of "Great...it's been pre-disastered; we'll take it"). Someone -correctly- pointing out that this roll of the dice has exactly the same chance as the last roll of the dice got one upvote. Maybe you really do have to state the obvious these days.

            veti- your point is valid; but different...it's about risk assesment and that people will assume the same amount of risk...so if you make them safer in one way they'll act more dangerously in another to bring risk levels to "normal"...I forget the theory name. Add seatbelts, people will drive more dodgily. I was in the transition period and I tried seatbelts a couple of times; self-assessed that I drove like a cunt when I felt cocooned and safer and left them off thereafter, preferring to feel and -let's face it be- more at risk and therefore drive better and not have the accident in the first place. Also I was driving lorries at the time and stepping out of a cocoon into a vehicle with no seatbelts and an acre of glass to plummet through just felt stupid.

            1. Unicornpiss
              Meh

              Pre-disastered

              My experience with things of this type is that your first impression is usually going to reflect a trend. For example, if you are test-driving a car and you get a flat tire, you're probably going to have nothing but trouble with it.

              I know it isn't statistically sound or logical, but it seems to ring true, at least in my life.

  6. Palpy
    Joke

    In other news...

    ...choking fumes envelope Volkswagen's Wolfsburg headquarters; and in Stonington, Monsanto workers are devoured by rogue GMO primroses. Because we need more irony.

    1. Rich 11

      Re: In other news...

      ...and Donald Trump drowns in his own bile.

    2. Aladdin Sane

      rogue GMO primroses

      Triffids, surely?

  7. Captain DaFt

    And?

    Company makes defective, explodey batteries.

    Company piles rejects in an area out back.

    Company now on fire.

    Somehow, I'm not surprised.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If I was cynical which I am, I would guess a fire at a battery plant for note 7's would be a really good way for Samsung to avoid liability on future note 7 fires where the owner keep hold of the device. Any claims of not knowing about the problems would potentially be null and void.

    If anyone needs an explanation of irony as noted in previous comments then please listen to the classic "Ironic" by alanis morissette, when you can explain the song then you fully understand irony.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.

      That's irony. Not exploding batteries.

      1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

        "It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.

        That's irony. Not exploding batteries."

        Isn't that just bad luck?

      2. A K Stiles

        Ironic

        The only ironic thing about that song is that all the things she listed were unfortunate circumstances or coincidences but not really irony...

        <edit> beaten to it! </edit>

      3. tiggity Silver badge

        Ten thousand spoons and all you want is a fork

        .. oops different subject entirely

    2. Baldrickk

      Ironic - isn't

      www.isitironic.com/alanis-morissette.htm

      One of many discussions / rants about this.

      e.g. Ed Byrne: "The only ironic thing about that song is it's called 'Ironic' and it's written by a woman who doesn't know what irony is. That's quite ironic."

      Unless of course, this is exactly what you meant by "explain the song"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Ironic - isn't

        Spot on Baldrickk.

      2. Valerion

        Re: Ironic - isn't

        Love that Ed Byrne sketch. Saw him do it live back in the 90s.

        My favourite:

        "A traffic jam when you're already late"

        "No, that's just annoying. It would only be ironic if you were a town planner, on your way to give a lecture on how you'd solved all the traffic problems in the city".

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If I was cynical, I'd say that tooling is expensive and accidental fires lead to insurance payouts.

      But I'm not, so I won't.

    4. genghis_uk

      Except Alanis Morissette did not get irony either. Most of the song lyrics relate to annoyances rather than ironic events

      <also well and truly beaten to it - oh, well!>

  9. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    I accidentally bought a phone (LG G3) with a removable battery.

    Now I realise that there are benefits to having a battery with it's own (thin) case, that sits in a dedicated space, not squashed in, glued, bent or otherwise mishandled. Apart from being able to change it in 10 seconds. Long live my new (old) G3! (The quad HD display is magnificent too.)

    It has a new LG battery, BTW.

  10. Steve Aubrey

    Recursive

    Next, the fire engines are going to catch on fire.

    And me without a recycling icon . . .

  11. Unicornpiss
  12. Paul 129
    Black Helicopters

    Conspiricy theory [Joke}

    I believe the Kerbals have taken over battery processing at Samsung.

  13. temporial

    It was probably the storage facility used for the Galaxy S8 batteries :).

  14. The C Man

    Can't help wondering how good their insurance cover is and whether they will claim for the loss of the Notes that were attached to the batteries.

  15. Arctic fox
    Trollface

    Ladeez and Geeentlemen put your hands together for the Galaxy Note 7.

    The gift that keeps on giving!

  16. seanj
    Go

    Reminds me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail...

    "Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked."

  17. CPU

    It seems the Universe does have a sense of humour.

  18. ElectricFox
    Mushroom

    Pissup in a brewery?

    Sod that, I'm trying to organise a BBQ in a Samsung battery facility...

  19. Lotaresco

    Reality bites

    I wonder if any of the Samsung GN7 fanbhois who were claiming that exploding batteries were "fake news" last year have changed their minds yet? There's been rock-solid evidence that the battery design was not fit for purpose and now this proving that there really is a problem.

  20. David Lewis 2
    Happy

    Irony?

    I don't know about irony, but I submit this is incontrovertible proof that Karma is real.

  21. Chris 239

    I see they got same team that designed the batteries to dispose of them!

    Hmm? I know lets get a few million of those things that have a million ot one chance of bursting into flames, pile then all up together and see what happens!

    Well, Duh!

    1. jelabarre59

      Re: I see they got same team that designed the batteries to dispose of them!

      Hmm? I know lets get a few million of those things that have a million ot one chance of bursting into flames, pile then all up together and see what happens!

      I'm sure there's a film vault full of nitrate-based films they could store them in instead...

  22. David Pearce

    Wait until electric vehicles become common. Massively larger batteries, suffering vibration, extreme temperature cycling and many years of service is asking for trouble

  23. the future is back!

    It's all in the lucky numbers, ironically

    Nineteen fire trucks? Samsung's "offshore" battery op has run smack into Chinese reality. 7-4-8 is legendary in China. That magic number = 19 and means Samsung overlooked best practices and suffered the inevitable consequences.

    "748: "七四八" In Mandarin this number is pronounced "qī sì bā". If these numbers are stated in certain tones, it has a meaning which roughly translates into: "Why don't you go die?" "去死吧" This combination is more commonly used as an insult to others, or rather, an indirect death threat. Youngsters can jokingly tease each other by saying "你去死吧!". Depending on the mood, place and way of saying this sentence it can confer meanings ranging from joking to insulting or provoking. On the other hand, any 3 digit number that ends with 48 sounds like "wealthy for X lifetimes" (世發) (e.g. 748[七世發] is wealthy for 7 lifetimes"), thus is generally considered lucky, with 448 and 548 being the exceptions since they are also homophones of "死先發"(Wealthy on death) and "唔洗發"(no need/not going to be wealthy)."

    Extra credit: "qi" most awesome word in scrabble.. Garçon, more coffee!

  24. This post has been deleted by its author

  25. Mpeler
    Coat

    Money *cough* laundering?

    Near the village, the peaceful village, the Li-ion burns tonight...

    (Well it IS a recycle center - gets me flameproof coat, AGAIN).....

  26. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    I think it was Graeme Garden who once remarked that sometimes, life is very well written.

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