Firefighters were at the Athenex facility for two hours Saturday. Photo submitted by Patrick Stokes.

DUNKIRK — North county fire crews were on the scene earlier this afternoon at the Athenex plant in the town of Dunkirk. According to scanner reports, the call came in around 4:30 p.m. to the facility off Lake Shore Drive East for an electrical fire on the second floor.

Crews were on the scene until 6:35 p.m. Minor damage was reported by those at the scene and it was confined to one room. Responding agencies included Dunkirk Fire Department, East Town of Dunkirk, Sheridan Fire Department and Chautauqua County Emergency Services.

Athenex is a global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies for the treatment of cancer. The company was founded in 2003 in Buffalo, New York, and has since grown to have operations across the U.S., China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the U.K., and Latin America.

The Dunkirk site, which was completed in 2020, is a 409,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. When announced by New York state in 2016, the company was expected to hire 400 positions. According to officials last year, COVID had slowed those plans.