THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 12, 2022 at 18:50 JST
MURAKAMI, Niigata Prefecture--Five people perished and one is still missing after a late-night fire at a rice cracker factory here that operated around the clock.
The blaze broke out around 11:45 p.m. on Feb. 11 at the Sanko Seika Co. plant and was extinguished nearly 12 hours later.
Among the dead were four female part-time workers in their 60s and 70s.
Twenty-two fire trucks and rescue vehicles were dispatched to the scene of the fire, which was extinguished at 11:10 a.m. on Feb. 12, according to officers at the Murakami Police Station.
About 30 people were working at the plant when the fire broke out.
A worker who escaped from the inferno said crumbs from rice crackers being baked at the time appeared to have caught fire and that flames quickly spread.
Neighbors said the flames reached the roof of the factory.
The plant is the largest of the three located in Niigata Prefecture, according to Sanko Seika officials.
(This article was written by Shota Tomonaga, Akihito Ogawa and Tomoki Miyasaka.)
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Fire rages at the rice cracker plant in Murakami, Niigata Prefecture, operated by Sanko Seika Co. (Shota Tomonaga)
