TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A New Year's Day fire destroyed part of a Zenith electronics plant near Taipei, bringing the factory to a halt and causing millions of dollars in damage, officials said Wednesday.
Police said the fire broke out late Monday night in the plant at Chungli, 26 miles south of Taipei.
No casualties were reported.
It took firefighters 17 hours to bring the fire under control because they had to tear down a wall in the windowless building to get to the blaze, police said.
Officials said the cause of the fire was unknown.
Ray Kunavich, president of the Zenith Taiwan Corporation, said an estimated $1 million worth of merchandise was lost in the blaze and some 25 percent of the plant's equipment was destroyed.
Kunavich said the total damage would not be known until an investigation is completed, but it would be in the 'millions of dollars.'
Production could not resume for at least a month, he said.
A Zenith spokesman at the company's Chicago headquarters said the Taiwan plant, which is owned by the U.S. based firm, produces computer components.
He said there were no injuries in the blaze.
Kunavich speculated the fire may have started in a department where finished products are tested. He said he had no reason to suspect sabotage, although the plant had recently laid off 500 employees after stopping production of black and white television sets.
The plant employs some 1,400 workers producing, microcomputers and computer terminals for export. It exported $55.3 worth of products in 1983.
