Innos devastated by fire

A fire at the University of Southampton's Mountbatten Building on Sunday 30th October, the home of Innos' microelectronics fabrication facility, the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), that took more than 100 firefighters almost 10 hours to bring under control, could have caused up to £50m in damage and replacement costs.

The emergency services were alerted to the fire when the alarms were activated at 6.30am on Sunday. Based on available information there was nothing in the smoke plume to pose a significant risk to health beyond that of the normal constituents of any other building fire. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Innos and ORC are both moving their processing and production to other facilities in the UK following the blaze, although Professor Bill Wakeham, vice-chancellor of the University of Southampton, has pledged that the research facilities lost in the fire will be rebuilt. There were no injuries or fatalities, but several research laboratories, including the university's fibre and microfabrication facilities, have been destroyed. No other university buildings have been affected by the fire, apart from by minor smoke damage.

Wakeham went on to say: 'This is a huge blow to the individuals who have lost work, and to the University and the country. This research facility and the researchers who use it are recognised as among the best in the world. We are committed to rebuilding, and out of these tragic events will emerge something bigger and better.

'Although we've lost a facility we've still got the staff who are the powerhouse behind the research. We are committed to ensuring as best we can that the impact on current research and teaching will be minimal. We have had many offers of support and facilities from other institutions and companies so that research can continue.

'We expect that the effect on undergraduate teaching will be very limited and short-term. For post-graduate students the situation is more complicated and we'll be talking to them individually about the way forward.'

Andrew Monk, ceo of Innos, established in April 2004 made a statement to reassure the company's clients: 'At this time I would like to reassure all associated with Innos that we have procedures in place to ensure that, despite the severity of the incident, Innos remains fully operational.

'Our headquarters at the adjacent Gower Building were unaffected by the fire. It is clear the effects of the blaze upon our cleanroom and equipment, housed in the Mountbatten Building, has had a major impact on our ability to complete processing and production from this site. However we have been quick to implement emergency procedures and are working closely with cleanrooms across the UK to transfer existing and new projects to these facilities while the full situation is assessed.'

The Mountbatten Building opened in 1991.