(3rd LD) Fire breaks out at POSCO plant in Pohang, no one hurt

(ATTN: CLARIFIES one fire broke out, by-product gas release was mistaken for fires)

POHANG, South Korea, Sept. 6 (Yonhap) -- A fire broke out at a POSCO plant in the southeastern city of Pohang on Tuesday, but no one was hurt, officials said.

The fire started at the electrical room of POSCO's No. 2 Hot Rolling Mill at 7:17 a.m. and gutted the room before being extinguished, fire officials said.

No one was hurt in the fire, and the company is trying to determine property damage, officials said.

Around the time the fire started, the plant also disposed of by-product gas by burning it, leading residents around the plant to mistake the burning for fires, company officials said.

"By-product gas release ... could have been viewed from outside as fires, but it was a normal operation," the company said in a statement.

President Yoon Suk-yeol has been briefed about the situation, his office said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but the company is looking into whether the fire was related to Typhoon Hinnamnor, which moved out of South Korea early Tuesday morning.

POSCO had said it would suspend operations at the plant for about five hours early Tuesday as the typhoon was expected to hit the nation's southeast coast.

kdh@yna.co.kr
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