Fire injures two in Estonian mill

  • 2008-05-05
  • In cooperation with BNS

TALLINN - A fire broke out at the Kehra paper mill on Sunday with two menslightly hurt.

The alarm center received information at 2:48 a.m. that two paper machines on the ground floor of the Kehra PaperMill had caught fire.

A spokesman for the North-Estonianrescue center told BNS that it was apparently aproduction line that had caught fire during the production process.

Sunil Marwah, CEO of Horizon Pulp & Paper, told BNS that the fire had started in one of the three paper machinesand spread to a another one within a couple of minutes.

He said work was immediately brought to standstill. 

Five rescue teams and fire engines arrived on the scene. Before therescuers' arrival, the workers attempted to put out the fire themselves and twomen sustained injuries as a result. They quickly received medical assistance.

Marwah emphasized, however, that none of the workers and rescuers wereinjured in the incident.

The rescuers evacuated about twenty people from the production premises, putout the fire and cooled down the machines. The fire was put out by 6:29.

The managing director said that work continued as usual a couple of hoursafter the fire. The size of the damages would be determined within a couple ofdays. Marwa added that until the repair of the damaged machine, the outputwould presumably remain at 120 tons daily instead of the usual 185-190 tons.