Tokyo, August 24 (RHC)-- A massive fire has erupted at a steel pipe plant near a key airport in the Japanese capital of Tokyo, hours after a huge blast rocked a warehouse at a U.S. military installation near the capital, causing a huge blaze.

Local television networks on Monday broadcast images showing plumes of dense black smoke and flames stretching up into the air. Tokyo's law enforcement and fire department authorities refused to speculate on whether the fire at the airport and the blast at the US base were somehow connected.

Earlier in the day, an explosion ripped through the U.S. military facility reportedly used for the storage of fuel and munitions, sending sparks into the sky and causing a massive fire that burned through the night. There were no reports of injuries.

The steel plant near Tokyo's busy Haneda International Airport is owned by a unit of steelmaker giant Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, which refused to comment on the incident following the large blaze.

The steel pipe-making facility, which spans 20,800 square meters, operates a pair of manufacturing lines, nearly a kilometer from the airport.