Fire breaks out at Samsung Note 7 battery factory in China

Production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone was halted after the replacement batteries also caught fire. Photo / AP

It appears that the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco is not over yet.

A "minor fire" broke out at the factory that manufactures the malicious batteries, which caused numerous handsets to explode.

The event occurred at a Samsung SDI plant in the Chinese city of Tianjin, in an area of the facility used for waste - firefighters reported it was a batch of lithium-ion batteries that triggered the fire.

Officials announced that the fire has since been extinguished and no casualties or significant damages to the factory were reported.

The fire at the Samsung plant was described as minor, and officials reported that it didn't halt production. Photo / Weibo

The fire comes just a month after Samsung revealed "irregularly sized" batteries were the issue that caused dozens of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to catch fire.

The firm said the batteries did not properly fit in the devices - and manufacture issues from a second battery supplier were also to blame.

Not only did this blunder force the South Korean firm to recall 2.5 million smartphones, but some of its customers were also injured.

And now it seems the South Korean firm is being haunted by their mistake.

Pictures showing plumes of black smoke rising from what is said to be a plant operated by the affiliate of Samsung in Tianjin were first spotted on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, reports Bloomberg.

However, spokesman Shin Yong-doo told Bloomberg that the fire did not affect production and only occurred at a waste depository.

The local fire department, that was present on the scene, said on its blog that the fire was caused by batteries inside the facility.

The "material that caught fire was lithium batteries inside the production workshops and some half-finished products", the Wuqing branch of the Tianjin Fire Department said in a post on its verified Sina Weibo account.

The statement also noted that it took 110 firefighters and 19 trucks to put out the fire.

SDI is set to start supplying batteries for Samsung's upcoming flagship smartphone Galaxy S8 in the first quarter of this year.

However, the fire on Wednesday may have some consumers questioning the safety of the batteries and wonder if the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 curse will continue.

Within a few days of the launch on August 2, 2016, reports surfaced that Note 7 smartphones were bursting into flames.

Just a month after the launch, mobile chief D.J. Koh held a press conference in Seoul, South Korea where he announced the recall of 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 devices that would eventually be replaced with a new and safe Note 7.

In the end, the problem that plagued the handset's batter cost the firm at least $5 billion.