Blaze at PX factory blamed on bosses
Print Edition
Poor management and failings in local government supervision were to blame for an explosion at a chemical plant in southeast China’s Fujian Province, the nation’s work safety watchdog said yesterday.
The April 6 blast and ensuing hydrocarbon fire at the paraxylene (PX) plant put six people in hospital.
Huang Yi, a spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety, told reporters yesterday that the bosses at the plant had chosen the cheapest bidder to build the facility at the expense of safety.
He said a furnace was too close to storage tanks, so when unspecified materials leaked into the furnace because of a broken tube, the blast tore into a tank and caused the fire.
Huang also said the company and local government had failed to adequately carry out safety management and supervision, and that those responsible would be dealt with according to law.
The explosion that ripped through the Tenglong Aromatic Hydrocarbon plant in Zhangzhou had triggered a fire that, at first, took firefighters more than 20 hours to extinguish.
However, the fire later reignited three times, and there was another explosion when oil leaked from a fourth tank.
The fire was finally put out on the afternoon of April 9.
Of the six people taken to hospital, five had been injured by broken glass. Nearly 30,000 residents were evacuated.
It was the second accident in 20 months at the facility. There had been an explosion there in July 2013, but no one had been hurt on that occasion.
PX is a chemical used for making fiber and plastics.
Exposure to the chemical can cause eye, nose and throat irritation.
PX plants are highly controversial in China, and proposed plants have met strong public opposition because of concerns over pollution.
Several PX projects have been halted, and Chen Jining, China’s environment ministers said last month that all new PX projects had to pass environmental impact assessments.
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