A fire erupted Thursday evening during the demolition of a chimney at a paper factory in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, according to reports.
The municipal fire department in Yatsushiro City received an emergency call from an employee at the Nippon Paper Industries' factory reporting the blaze. Footage showed flames coming from one of the damaged chimneys, with black smoke rising into the sky.
The factory's chimneys were damaged by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck on July 28. That quake killed 38 people, and an 80-meter (262-foot) high chimney collapsed, killing nine factory employees. The earthquake also destroyed or damaged approximately 36,000 houses and buildings, with over 2,000 people still housed in evacuation centers.
Thursday's fire started when workers attempted to remove the tip of a broken chimney. No injuries were reported in the fire incident, officials said. The exact cause of the fire remains unknown, and firefighters were still working to extinguish the flames more than three hours after the initial deployment of 14 fire engines.