Brief fire squelched at WaferTech plant

A small fire at one of Clark County’s largest employers caused little, if any, damage Tuesday in a close call that packed the potential to register a multimillion-dollar impact.

The worst was imagined when firefighters were dispatched at about 2:30 p.m. to the WaferTech plant, 5509 N.W. Parker St. in Camas for a two-alarm fire.

Fortunately, the worst-case scenario never materialized; a small fire in a first floor air duct of WaferTech’s five-story fabrication plant was quickly quashed.

The impact to the massive integrated circuit, semiconductor foundry was negligible. “We’re very fortunate,” said Spencer Leese, a WaferTech spokesman.

Fire crews from Camas and Vancouver responded to the fire that Leese said was under control in about 15 minutes. Embers smoldered and remained warm until about 4 p.m.

Leese counted the company fortunate on three fronts: machinery incurred little to no damage; assembly had been shut down for annual maintenance so there was no disruption to productivity; and, as a result of the maintenance, fewer employees than normal worked Tuesday.

About 120 employees and contractors were evacuated from the main fabrication building, and they returned to work about 5 or 5:15 p.m., Leese said.

WaferTech etches mazelike circuits into silicon wafers to make microchips, which are the “brains” of computers, cell phones and many other devices. A subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., WaferTech is Clark County’s fourth-largest private employer, with about 1,030 workers.

“Because we’re a 24/7 operation, and we’re producing thousands of wafers every day, any time down can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars of production,” Leese said.

Damage to the machinery on the first level of the five-story plant, too, “runs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per tool,” Leese said.

Camas Mayor Paul Dennis said a closure, however temporary, of WaferTech facilities would register a significant impact on city, county and state tax intake.

“It’s not just the financial standpoint, but (WaferTech) employs quite a few individuals,” Dennis said. “To the degree the employees would be out of work, the effect would be significant.”

Late Tuesday afternoon, with the small fire put out, WaferTech and city officials were free to breathe a sigh of relief.

Camas Fire Chief Leo Leon said the fire broke out in an air duct serving the fabrication building. He said WaferTech engineers and on-site firefighters quickly jumped on the small burn.

Officials explained the duct normally acts like a chimney in a house, and material inside that duct caught fire. There was no evidence the material that burned was hazardous, Leese said.

The plant was not operating at the time of the fire. Leese said plant workers were doing an annual “fab warmdown” that may or may not have caused the fire.

Workers were evacuated from the building but were allowed to return about two hours later. There were no injuries reported. The plant resumed normal operations about 5 p.m. Tuesday.

WaferTech is one of the most valuable properties in Clark County, according to county property records. It is valued at $62.5 million, compared with $158.2 million for the Georgia-Pacific paper mill in Camas, $99 million for SEH America’s Northeast 112th Avenue campus, and $32.4 million for Westfield Vancouver mall. The plant, which sits at the end of a long, private driveway, is not visible from the road.