POSCO Pohang Steelworks Fire...It's been two hours since the fire started.

At around 4:20 a.m. today, a fire broke out at POSCO Pohang Steelworks,
"10km away, strong vibration...Explosive sounds have been issued several times by the
Fire Department, 'Response Phase 1'...It's about 6:40 in here. It's a big fire.

[Anchor]
A big fire broke out at POSCO Pohang Steelworks in Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do early this morning.

Fire authorities issued the first stage of response and started extinguishing the fire, but within about two hours, the big fire was contained.

I'm connecting to the reporter's phone, reporter Heo Sung-joon, please tell me about the fire extinguishing situation.

[Reporter]
Yes, the fire broke out at POSCO Pohang Steelworks in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, at around 4:20 a.m. today.

The flames soared several times with loud explosions.

If you look at the report screen of Pohang citizens who came into YTN, you can see smoke rising along with flames around the factory.

The informants said that even though it was 10 kilometers away from POSCO, the windows were vibrating enough to shake at the time of the explosion.

Let's listen to it for ourselves.

[Seo Jae-min / POSCO Fire Witness: I heard explosions five or six times, so I woke up and saw that there was a lot of fire. The explosion was loud, so I think it was a little louder than the sound of thunder.]

[Posco Fire Witness] I woke up when I heard an explosion while I was sleeping. I thought there was an earthquake. So I looked at it, at first, flames were rising and smoke was rising. It will take about 30 minutes by car (to the fire).]

Within 30 minutes of receiving the report, the fire department issued the first stage of the response to mobilize all the personnel of the competent fire department,

Two hours and 20 minutes later, we caught a big fire at around 6:40 a.m.

The fire started at the '3 Finex Factory' in Pohang Steelworks.

The FINEX plant is a furnace-like facility that produces molten metal, but the specific details of the fire and the extent of the damage have not yet been determined.

One employee in the factory was taken to a hospital with 1 to 2 degrees of burns on his face and hands.

Eight people were working at the scene at the time of the fire, but all others were evacuated, so there were no other casualties.

POSCO said in a phone call with YTN that it will establish a recovery plan after identifying the exact cause of the fire and property damage as soon as the residual fire is cleared.

In addition, he explained that he will maintain the total amount of operation by increasing production at the remaining blast furnaces except for the FINEX facility that caught fire.

So far, I'm Heo Sung-joon of YTN at the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Report Headquarters.