An AbbVie ($ABBV) manufacturing facility in North Chicago had a fire in a laboratory this week. The origin of the blaze was believed to be electrical but AbbVie is investigating since it is the second fire at the plant in two months.
The firefighters were called in Tuesday night after a fire started in a laboratory and electronics storage room of the contract manufacturing plant, according to the Chicago Tribune. The blaze was contained to the room.
No one was hurt, Fire Chief Dell Urban told the newspaper. “The fire was held in check by the sprinkler system. Everyone had been evacuated and there were no injuries," Urban was quoted as saying.
Urban said there had been another fire recently, also contained by the sprinkler system. According to a couple of online reports, there was a fire at the plant April 4.
An AbbVie spokeswoman in an email would only confirm there was a fire and that there were no injuries and that production at the facility was unaffected.
While uncommon, fires do happen at pharma manufacturing facilities. Amgen ($AMGN) had two explosions and fires that injured people 9 months apart in May 2013 and January 2014 at Amgen's South San Francisco lab facility. It received a citation from the California OSHA.
Related Articles:
Amgen facility has its second explosion in 9 months
Worker hurt in 'flash fire' at Amgen facility