14,000 residents resettled as China chemical plant fire spreads to fourth oil tank
Blaze at Fujian paraxylene plant roars back to life, spreading to fourth oil tank as villagers in neighbouring town report 'dark-coloured rain'
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 08 April, 2015, 11:51pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 08 April, 2015, 11:51pm
Nectar Gan [email protected]
A fireman works to extinguish the massive blaze after an explosion at the petrochemical plant in Zhangzhou, Fujian province.Photo: Reuters
More than 14,000 people living near a burning chemical plant in Fujian province have been evacuated after it caught fire for the third time early yesterday morning and spread to a fourth oil tank before noon.
The fires at the paraxylene plant in Gulei, Zhangzhou, restarted for the second time slightly past 2am - less than three hours after firefighters put out the flames that had roared back to life for the first time at 7.40pm, China News Service reported.
The resurgence occurred shortly after officials said the fires - caused by an oil leak at the Dragon Aromatics facility on Monday - had been put out. Two fire trucks were destroyed in the blaze, Fujian Daily reported.
Experts said the blaze restarted because the temperature of the liquid in the three oil tanks that had caught fire was higher than their ignition point, and that the liquid began burning again once the layer of foam sprayed on it had been consumed.
Authorities expanded the evacuation zone to 5km from the burning tanks.
At around 11am, the fire spread to a fourth tank with about 1,500 tonnes of oil.
More than 14,000 residents were relocated to nearby areas.
A Gulei resident and owner of an abalone farm said he woke up to a strong foul smell and flames that lit up the night sky at 3am.
"The flames were very big and bright. They burned high in the air," the man, surnamed Hong, told the South China Morning Post. "I was afraid it might blow up, so I organised my family and workers to leave the place."
Chen Haibin, a volunteer helping villagers to evacuate, said residents had all left by 7pm. Over 10,000 people were resettled in the city centre of neighbouring Zhangpu county while others went to another town.
Local media reported that when it rained in Tongling township, about 6km from Gulei, on Tuesday morning, the dark-coloured raindrops left black stains on the ground.
A Gulei resident and owner of a seahorse farm said he woke on Tuesday to find many of his more than 10,000 seahorses dead and floating on the water.
Hong told the Post that the abalones and prawns in his farm appeared normal when he left yesterday morning. He tried to return to Gulei to check on them later in the day but found the town sealed off.
The authorities have not announced whether the incident caused pollution to the air or seawater in the area.
