Firefighters contain main blaze at Kumho Tire plant
A firefighting helicopter conducts fire extinguishing operations at Kumho Tire's plant in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, Sunday. Yonhap
Firefighters on Sunday contained the main blaze of a fire at Kumho Tire's plant in Gwangju, nearly 32 hours after it started.
Authorities put out the main fire at 2:50 p.m. after it broke out Saturday morning at the factory's plant No. 2 in Gwangju, some 270 kilometers south of Seoul.
Firefighters have contained about 90 to 95 percent of the entire blaze and are expected to completely extinguish it before 5 p.m.
With the move, authorities have lowered the firefighting response to level 1 after issuing a nationwide mobilization order the previous day.
About 460 personnel and 170 pieces of equipment were mobilized to put out the fire.
Authorities have suspected that the fire may have started from equipment used for heating raw rubber.
As part of efforts to contain the blaze at the 140,000-square-meter factory, firefighters installed water cannon systems at the site. They also mobilized 18 vehicles to spray firefighting foam on burning raw rubber to cut off oxygen and suppress the fire.
Kumho Tire has halted production at the plant, with about 50-60 percent of plant No. 2 believed to have burned down.
Kumho Tire CEO Jung Il-taik apologized for the fire, vowing to make all-out recovery efforts.
"(We) will make efforts to minimize inconvenience to those who live near the Gwangju factory and have evacuated," he said. "I truly, deeply apologize. (We) will place extinguishing the fire as the top priority by actively working with the authorities."
Currently, 132 residents of apartments near the factory are residing in a shelter at Kwangju Women's University.