Firefighters battle flames at Poland's largest lignite mine

Firefighters in central Poland say 13 firefighting units are fighting flames that have engulfed a conveyer belt at Poland's largest brown coal mine in Belchatow

Poland Power Outage (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Firefighters in central Poland say 13 units are fighting flames that have engulfed a conveyer belt at Poland’s largest brown coal mine in Belchatow.

The fire broke out at midday Saturday and sent huge clouds of black smoke over the area, which also includes Poland’s largest lignite power plant.

A spokesman for the firefighters in Lodz region, Jedrzej Pawlak, said there were no reports of casualties. He said the fire was brought under control but not out.

The neighboring power plant, which suffered an automated outage in a separate incident on Monday, was not affected.

The fire came a day after top European Union court ordered Poland to immediately halt operations at another lignite mine in Turow, on the Czech and German border, that belongs to the same state energy company PGE.

Coal makes up 65% of Poland's energy sources, including 17% from lignite.

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