MOSCOW (MRC) -- A plant in southeast China that produces a toxic chemical was rocked by its second explosion in 20 months, prompting a rescue operation by the nation’s army and reviving concerns about the safety of industrial projects, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.
As MRC reported earlier, the blast happened around 7 p.m. (1100 GMT) at a pumping station for a condensate storage at the Dragon Aromatics' plant in Zhangzhou in Fujian province that produces paraxylene, or PX, a chemical used in making polyester fibre and plastics.
The army deployed 118 soldiers and 25 specialized vehicles after the blast at the paraxylene-making Dragon Aromatics facility in Zhangzhou, People’s Liberation Daily reported on Weibo, a microblogging service. Local residents have been transferred to four sites that are 18 kilometers (11 miles) away from the plant, the Beijing Times newspaper said. Nobody answered calls to the plant’s office.
Six people were hospitalized, and another 13 were treated for minor injuries, according to the official Xinhua news agency. A fire in the plant’s xylene facility because of an oil leak led to explosions at three tanks, according to Xinhua. The local fire department said on its official microblog that 122 firefighting vehicles and 610 people are involved in the rescue operation.
About 400 people living near the blast site were evacuated Monday night, state-run China News Service reported on its website.
China is seeking to reduce industrial accidents, and the government last year ordered a nationwide overhaul of safety practices at factories handling explosive materials. A blast killed at least 75 workers in Kunshan city in August, while Premier Li Keqiang intensified efforts to improve workplace safety after explosions at an underground oil pipeline killed 62 in the eastern port city of Qingdao in 2013.
Dragon Aromatics, owned by Xianglu Group, a Taiwanese petrochemical group, is one of the largest independently-run PX producers in China.
MRC