U.S. News

Sony Closes HQ Near San Diego Due to Fires

The corporate headquarters of Sony Electronics has been closed Tuesday for the second day due to the wildfires ravaging Southern California.

Chris Carlson

Sony closed its offices on Monday as wildfires threatened buildings on its campus, which is situated on 94 acres north of downtown San Diego in Rancho Bernardo.

"The office is still closed," said spokeswoman Marcy Cohen. "As far as I understand, the buildings are not being threatened, but obviously things are in a touch-and-go situation, and could change at any moment."

According to Cohen, the roads near Sony's offices, including I-15, have reopened, but it is unclear when the company's approximately 2,000 employees will be able to return to work at that site.

The company has set up a temporary hotline for its employees and also is supplying them with information on how to contact the Red Cross or medical resources if they need it.

As a precautionary step, Sony has shut down some of its servers at the Southern California site, but the company's email is still up and running, she said.

More than 11 major wildfires are burning, mostly unchecked, in the region, with hundreds of thousands of residents in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas forced to evacuate as high winds fan the flames.

Sony Electronics is the largest division of Sony Corporation of America, which is the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Sony of Japan.