[Anchor]

A fire broke out at an asphalt manufacturing plant in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province, this afternoon (August 13), leaving a worker in his 60s with severe burns. Although the explosion was loud and raised high risks of escalating into a major fire, the fire authorities succeeded in containing it early through a swift response.

Reporter Lee Hwan from CJB.

[Reporter]

Crimson flames surge and swallow the inside of the plant, while thick black smoke billows densely.

The fire at the asphalt manufacturing plant in Gwanghyewon-myeon, Jincheon-gun, broke out at around 1:30 p.m. today. Police suspect that static electricity caused a spark while mixing toluene, a flammable substance, into an asphalt concrete container.

[Witness: I heard a loud 'bang' that sounded just like an explosion. Startled, I rushed out of the office. When I came out, I saw massive amounts of smoke pouring out along with flames behind the building.]

It is reported that three workers were inside the plant at the time of the fire.

Due to the fire, a man in his 60s working at the plant suffered second-degree burns across his entire body and was transported to the hospital.

As the fire quickly spread to large quantities of flammable substances inside the facility, fire authorities issued a Level 1 response about 20 minutes after the outbreak, mobilizing available personnel and equipment from the jurisdictional fire station to concentrate firefighting efforts.

[Choi Won-seok / Jincheon Fire Station, North Chungcheong Province: We determined that preventing the fire from spreading to neighboring buildings was our top priority, so our command team and commanders made preventing surrounding extension the number one priority.]

Although firefighting operations faced difficulties due to the plant's sandwich panel structure and piled-up materials, authorities succeeded in bringing the major flames under control about two hours after the fire broke out.

Police and fire authorities plan to investigate the exact cause of the fire and the scale of property damage once the fire is completely extinguished.

(Video by: Kim Geun-hhyuk / CJB)

Lee Hwan, CJB