A fire at a portable butane gas factory south of Seoul was brought under control six hours after it broke out early Sunday morning, causing nearly 2 billion won ($1.86 million) in damage, local officials said.
There were no casualties reported as the facility was closed for the weekend.
The flame erupted at the Taeyang Industrial Co. factory in Cheonan, 92 kilometers south of Seoul, just past 6:30 a.m., firefighters said. Witnesses told the police they heard a loud explosion before seeing tall billows of black smoke rise from the factory site.
Hundreds of people and available choppers were mobilized to stop the flame from reaching gas storage facilities nearby that contained more than 450 tons of LPG, officials said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
Taeyang Industrial is mostly known for its portable butane gas cartridges. The company accounts for 70 percent of the local market and 60 percent of the global market for the product.
The heaviest damage occurred in assembly lines and storage facilities, estimated at over 1.9 billion won, according to firefighters. (Yonhap)
