Large Fire Erupts on Roof of Google's Beijing Offices in Zhongguancun

A fire erupted on what appeared to be the roof of Google's Bejing offices on Wednesday morning, Dec 12. Black smoke was first spotted coming from the top of Tower B of the building, which is located in Beijing's tech hub of Zhongguancun, at around 11.05am, according to local reports.

Employees were evacuated and no casualties were reported as a result of the fire. Employees were reported to have been let back in 20 minutes after leaving the building, according to New York Times tech reporter Raymond Zhong. Zhong also posted a video of the fire and the huge plume of black smoke via Twitter.

At the time of publishing, no official cause for the fire had been announced.

The news came hours after Google CEO Sundar Pichai was grilled on Tuesday by the US House Judiciary Committee about whether the tech mammoth had any plans to enter the Chinese market with a censored version of its search engine. Asked about Google’s plans, Pichai stated:

Right now, we have no plans to launch in China, we don’t have a search product there. Our core mission is to provide users access to information, and getting access to information is an important human right. So we are always compelled, across the world to try hard to provide that information. But right now there are no plans to launch search in China. I’m committed to being fully transparent, including with policy-makers, to the extent that we ever develop plans to do that.

Though the fire is unlikely to hinder Google's operations in the capital, it has certainly drawn attention to its existence from the international and local community in less than auspicious fashion.

Photos: Raymond Zhong (via Twitter), 曰曰域事 (via WeChat)