Firefighters still trying to defeat plant blaze
Print Edition
Firefighters in southeast China’s Fujian province are working to prevent a chemical plant fire they put out for a third time early yesterday from reigniting, days after explosions rocked the site.
The blaze at Tenglong Aromatic Hydrocarbon (Zhangzhou) Co Ltd in Zhangzhou’s Gulei Peninsula was twice extinguished on Tuesday, but it reignited in both cases.
Firefighters put it out again at 2:57am yesterday and were spraying water over storage tanks to cool them down.
There was an oil leak on Monday evening at the plant, which produces paraxylene, used for making fiber and plastics. The oil caught fire, causing explosions at three nearby storage tanks.
The fire, which was put out for the first time around 4:40pm on Tuesday, started again three hours later as residue in one of the three tanks ignited when exposed to the air.
At around 11:40pm the same day, the fire was extinguished a second time, but was seen to flare up again at around 2:09am on Wednesday, according to the emergency response headquarters.
In addition, a fourth tank containing nearly 1,500 tons of liquid hydrocarbon caught fire the same morning.
Over 29,000 people have been evacuated from the surrounding area to temporary accommodation.
Provincial environmental and marine affairs departments said that no excessive pollutants have been detected in surrounding areas. Pollution monitoring is continuing.
The Tenglong plant covers about 115 hectares, including factories, a specialized wharf for oils and a thermal power station, according to its official website.
The Zhangzhou government had started to permanently relocate people living within 800 meters of the plant before the explosions.
Some 10,500 people had moved to new homes by the end of last year, said Shen Yongxiang, director of the management committee of Gulei economic development zone.
More than 400 people were still living in the area when the fire started, said Shen.
Known primarily for flower and fruit production, Zhangzhou has accelerated industrial development, especially of chemical works, in recent years, after seeing its neighboring cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou benefit from such a drive.
Gulei Peninsula, once famed for carrot production, is now among the seven biggest petrochemical industry bases in China.
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