Thousands of SK hynix employees fled their factory stations earlier today as a fire broke out in a room where fluorine gas was used. Yonhap News reports that seven of the workers have been hospitalized, five are being treated for eye irritation, and two are under observation (machine translation). At the time of writing, a cleanup operation appears to be continuing at SK hynix’s Cheongju 4th campus, with all 3,600 employees evacuated. A company official told Yonhap, “There are no issues with equipment operation, so there will be no production disruption.”
Reports indicate that the fire began at around 10.23 am Korean time today. An unintentional fire is probably not a great thing anywhere in an advanced semiconductor fab, even in the burgers and cigars wing. However, in “the gas room on the 6th floor connecting the M15 and M15X factories at SK Hynix's Cheongju 4th campus,” it could have been a particularly nasty incident. This room includes equipment/canisters/pipelines holding highly toxic fluorine gas.
