Work halted at coal processing plant in Russia’s Far East after four injured in fire, owner says

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(Reuters) -A major coal processing plant in far northeastern Russia halted work after a fire injured four people, the plant’s owner, Russian miner Mechel, said on Wednesday.

Mechel said in statements that work had been stopped and staff evacuated from the plant in Neryungri in the Republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia, after a methane fire began in a finished goods warehouse.

Mechel said it was yet to clarify when work at the plant, one of the biggest in the vast and remote Yakutia region, would resume.

In a statement on Telegram, the Yakutia emergencies ministry said the fire had been extinguished after causing damage to warehouses, buildings and a conveyor belt.

Mechel owns the Neryungri plant and its parent company, Yakutugol, one of the largest coal mining companies in the Sakha Republic. The Neryungri plant, which started operations in 1985, has an annual capacity of nine million tons of coking coal.

More than 50 firefighters and 12 pieces of equipment were involved in tackling the fire, Denis Gerasimenko, deputy chief of the Neryungri Firefighting and Rescue Squad, said in a video on the Telegram messaging app.

“The difficulty lies in the design of the building and the presence of a flammable load,” Gerasimenko said.

Several Russian Telegram news channels reported an explosion at the plant. Reuters could not independently verify the reports of an explosion.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Kate Mayberry, Michael Perry and Ed Osmond)