Three Dead after Fire at Huawei Research Base in South China

(Bloomberg) -- Three people were found dead after a large fire broke out at a Huawei Technologies Co. research facility on Friday.

The casualties were reported after firefighters put out a blaze that began in the afternoon, the local authority said. Video footage showed fumes pouring out of the top floors of a box-like structure that comprised part of the company’s sprawling Songshan Research facility. The building was still under construction and the victims were members of the project’s site management team, the city’s fire department said in a statement.

It wasn’t clear what activities went on in the facility, but the Dongguan lab conducts research into materials for applications from 5G networking to semiconductors. The local fire department said earlier that the main material burning was sound-absorbing cotton. Representatives for Huawei said the company was looking into the incident but had no immediate comment.

Huawei, the world’s largest provider of 5G networking gear and smartphones, is struggling to sustain growth in the face of Trump administration sanctions that threaten to cut off vital supply of software and components. The company is racing to find alternatives to American technology to keep its business going.

Read more: Huawei Revs Up Android Substitute as U.S. Curbs Hit Phone Sales

(Updates with deaths from first paragraph.)

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