1 killed, 11 hurt in explosion at Japan chemical factory

Fuji City in Japan

One worker was killed while 11 others were injured in an explosion and subsequent fire that broke out at a chemical factory just a few kilometers from Mount Fuji in central Japan on Friday.

Residents living within 100 meters (330 feet) of the factory were ordered to evacuate as 17 fire engines and nearly 60 firefighters battled the blaze.

Plumes of thick black smoke billowed into the sky from the factory belonging to Arakawa Chemical Industries, which manufactures chemicals for the paper industry.

“A 64-year-old worker, who had earlier been missing, was found dead,” Takahiro Suzuki, a fire service official from Fuji City, told AFP.

Eleven other workers were hurt – three of them seriously wounded –, according to Suzuki, updating an earlier announcement that 14 people had been injured.

The casualties were all male, whose ages were between 20s and 60s.

Fuji city is located in the foothills of the world-famous Mount Fuji, around 100 kilometers west of the capital Tokyo.

Officials said it was not immediately clear what exactly was burning, but the factory operator denied risks of potential contamination or pollution.

“There is no concern” that chemicals in the plant could pollute the environment in the neighborhood, said a company official who declined to give his name.

The factory produces resin for printer inks and chemicals used for making paper, the company official also said.       /kga