Firefighters arrived at the scene of a fire but failed to extinguish the blaze due to the lack of water, a local media outlet reported Tuesday.

A fire broke out late Monday at a rice mill located in Yeongdong-Gun, North Chungcheong Province. North Cungcheong Fire Department received the call at 8:23 p.m. and a fire crew was dispatched to the scene within five minutes.

The crew, however, were unable to get a quick handle on the fire as the 2,000-liter water tank in the fire truck was not filled with enough water. Another truck arrived at 8:35 p.m., by which time the fire was out of control.

The fire caused around 50 million won ($46,010) in property damage, including the building, machines and 2 tons of rice. It took 47 minutes to extinguish the fire.

Yeong-dong Fire Station launched an investigation into the case, but it seems hard to press the crew to take responsibility for the issue since they are not regular firefighters, an official told Yonhap News Agency.

A total of 13 volunteer fire departments are currently under the authority of Yeong-dong Fire Station, and five of them are run by volunteer staff only. The firefighters who moved out to fight the blaze on Monday were volunteers.

By Park Ju-young (jupark@heraldcorp.com)