KUMAMOTO, Japan - A fire broke out Thursday at a plant damaged in the magnitude-7.1 earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture in late July and was extinguished about six and a half hours later, local authorities said.
Police said all 10 workers at the site evacuated safely and no injuries were reported at Nippon Paper Industries Co.'s mill, where three chimneys were hit by the quake, including an 80-meter-high one that snapped in the middle, killing nine workers.
The blaze started at a 110-meter chimney whose top had been damaged and was being dismantled, not the one that fell in the earthquake, the company said.
The firm added that it had expected to complete the dismantling by mid-September, but the work is now likely to be delayed. It has yet to decide when demolition of the other two quake-hit chimneys will begin.
A man in his 60s who lives in Yatsushiro said he heard what sounded like an explosion. "I went closer, but the flames were so intense that I had to run away," he said.
