Fire breaks out at Nagoya steel plant in Japan

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, formed through a merger in 2012, reported its fifth fire at its Nagoya steel plant in central Japan. The plant produces a wide range of steel products, from high quality steel sheets, ranging from bodies to containers for canned food, as well as various types of steel pipes.

The company said a fire broke out in the plant's coal storage, which is next to the coke oven. Unlike neighboring China, industrial accidents are relatively rare in Japan, where safety measures are generally strictly enforced. The plant announced the creation of a committee to investigate the details of all incidents and began an overhaul of the power supply systems.

More than 6.74 million tonnes of steel were produced at the Nagoya plant in the last fiscal year. It should be noted that the plant has recently become a victim of frequent accidents. This is the fifth time that an accident has occurred since last year. There were several power failures in January leading to a fire, as well as in June and July. Four incidents this year were related to power supplies, a company spokesman said, adding that the latter was caused by a different issue.

Thirteen people were injured, according to a Nippon Steel spokesman. A spokesman also said the company is continuing to investigate the details of the accident. The workers of the plant on their own tried to cope with the spread of fire from the coal storage unit to other workshops of the plant. He added that the police will investigate the case of possible professional negligence leading to injuries.