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Large-scale blaze at plant in northwest Moscow extinguished; no casualties reported

According to earlier reports from Moscow law enforcement bodies, the scale of the fire could have been much lower in case the emergency services were notified promptly

© Maxim Grigoriev/TASS

MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. A blaze at the Tushino mechanical engineering plant in the northwest of the Russian capital was put out in the early morning of Friday, some five hours after it broke out the day before, a spokesman for the Moscow Emergencies Services said adding that no casualties were reported as a result of the incident.

"The fire at a household chemicals warehouse, located on the territory of the plant, was extinguished at 1.36 a.m. Moscow time [23:36 GMT Thursday]," the spokesman said. "No casualties were reported."

The blaze at the five-storey facility engulfed an area of some 15,000 square meters (about 161,460 square feet) and it took numerous firefighting units five hours to localize and eventually put out the raging fire.

Experts currently work at the scene of the accident to establish the cause of the emergency.

According to earlier reports from Moscow law enforcement bodies, the scale of the fire could have been much lower in case the emergency services were notified promptly.

Security guards on duty at the plant had been allegedly trying to extinguish the fire independently before they called the firefighting services at 8:40 p.m. Thursday Moscow time, the Moscow Emergencies Service press service reported.

First firefighting engines arrived at the scene five minutes after the call had been received.

The fire of such scale in the Russian capital was last registered in May of 2016.

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