Hankook Tire halts production at Daejeon plant after fire breaks out

Smoke rises from Hankook Tire's plant in Daejeon as the fire authorities battle to put out the remaining fire around Monday noon. [NEWS1]

Hankook Tire halted all tire production at its Daejeon plant after a fire broke out at the factory on Sunday night and burned about 210,000 tires. The date to resume production is to be announced.

The tiremaker's stock fell 5.99 percent to close at 34,500 won ($26.51) on Monday.

The main blaze was extinguished after 13 hours, leaving 11 people injured as of Monday afternoon. Of the 11 injured, 10 were workers at the factory and one was a firefighter.

It took 750 firefighters, 158 vehicles, 9 helicopters and special heavy-duty equipment deployed from Ulsan fire department to extinguish the main blaze.

Fire authorities are extinguishing remaining fires and clearing away building debris, as the fire response alert was lowered to Level 2 as of 11 a.m. Monday.

The Daejeon fire department had issued a Level 1 response at 10:17 p.m. after receiving a report that a fire had broken out in a machine inside the Hankook Tire factory in Moksang-dong in Daedeok District, and raised it to Level 2 at 10:34 p.m. and Level 3 at 2:10 a.m.

The levels indicate the severity of the fire and the level of response required.

It is estimated that the fire occurred near the rubber vulcanization equipment in Factory 2 of the north compound of the facility, according to the Daejeon fire department.

The local fire authorities evacuated residents living in nearby apartments to emergency shelters and three schools in the vicinity either closed down or ran online classes.

Strong winds spread the fire rapidly, and toxic gas from the tire plant made the extinguishing effort more difficult, according to the local department.

"The main fire is extinguished, and the black smoke is gone," a senior official of the Daejeon fire department said, adding that there is low chance of additional spread of flames.

BY LIM JEONG-WON, SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]