9 held by police in connection with deadly pipeline explosions
Print Edition
Nine people have been detained by police in connection with the deadly pipeline blasts in east China’s port city of Qingdao on Friday.
The detained were seven employees of Sinopec, China’s largest oil refiner and operators of the pipeline in Qingdao’s Huangdao District, and two “relevant people” from the district, the district government said in a brief statement late last night.
The blasts exposed serious human errors and the accident was a “very serious dereliction of duty,” a senior official in charge of the country’s work safety said earlier in the day.
Problems included the unreasonable layout of oil pipelines and urban drainage pipes, negligence in pipeline supervision, and unprofessional handling of oil leakage before the blasts, said Yang Dongliang, director of the State Administration of Work Safety.
Yang was speaking in Qingdao at a meeting of a team investigating the accident which, as of yesterday morning, had left 55 people dead, nine missing and 136 in hospital.
According to local police, 49 bodies have been identified so far, with 42 of them male.
As of yesterday, blood supplies in Qingdao were sufficient for clinical demand after more than 950 people in the city donated some 340,000 milliliters of blood in the wake of the incident.
The oil slick from the blasts is under control, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration said yesterday.
On Saturday, it dispatched 24 oil-clearing vessels, 10 fishing boats, a rescue vessel, six patrol vessels and a helicopter to clean up spills that had contaminated 3,000 square meters of sea water. Barricades running 3,000 meters long, 80 tons of dispersant and 20 tons of oil absorbent felt were used, collecting 80 tons of oil-water mixture.
On Sunday, another 18 oil-clearing vessels and 830 people were dispatched, and about 100 tons of oil-water mixture together with the oil absorbent felt were collected. The contaminated area was now just 3 to 5 square kilometers, the administration said.
Friday’s blasts came after crude oil began leaking at 3am from the pipeline. The valves of the Huangdao oil warehouse were shut about 15 minutes later.
The oil spill then flowed into the city’s rainwater pipe network, which empties into Jiaozhou Bay. There were two explosions around 10:30am when workers were attempting to clear the spill.
Water and power supplies in Qingdao were back to normal, local authorities said yesterday, and the majority of public heating and gas supplies restored.
Buildings at one middle school were seriously damaged. The local education authorities have arranged psychological counseling for students and teaching staff.
All other 18 schools and kindergartens in the district resumed classes yesterday. No students or teachers were among the victims.
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