Shanghai: Shanghai officials announced on Saturday an investigation into the flames of a large chemical plant that killed one person and injured another in the first major industrial accident since the city lifted the blockade in early June. ..
A fire at the Shinopek Shanghai Petrochemical Company’s factory on the outskirts of Jinshan District, according to Xinhua News Agency, broke out around dawn on Saturday and was extinguished within hours.
In a video of an aerial drone shared by residents with AFP, three fires burned in different locations, the sky was pitch black, and the vast industrial area was covered with heavy smoke.
“Currently, on-site disposal work is in order and protective combustion is taking place,” the Shanghai government said on social media, adding that “safety risks” are “controllable.”
“Monitoring data … Indicates that the air quality has basically returned to normal.”
The Shanghai government added that the Danish Emergency Management Agency has begun investigating the cause of the accident.
The company cooperated with the investigation in another Weibo post on Saturday afternoon, stating that the closure of related facilities “will not have a significant impact on the market.”
The dead were “drivers of third-party transport vehicles,” and employees were slightly injured, the company said.
The refinery is located on the southern coast of Shanghai and near the Wetland Park. The company said it is conducting environmental monitoring in neighboring areas.
“Currently, no environmental impact has been found on the surrounding waters,” he said.
China’s industrial engine and most populous city, Shanghai, has reopened energetically after being blocked for about two months to combat the coronavirus outbreak caused by the Omicron variant. , A fire broke out.
Although the blockade was officially lifted in early June, supply chain roars and factory closures continue to have widespread impact on the global economy.
– Sky’full of fire’–
At the petrochemical plant, residents up to 6 km (4 miles) away heard an early morning explosion, according to local media.
One said the quake caused by the explosion shook the door of the apartment violently.
“Half of the sky was full of red fire and dark black smoke, with dust and cotton-like things floating in the air,” an anonymous resident told the Chongqing-based newspaper Upstream News.
“I heard a burning sound-a huge roar like the sound of an airplane in flight.”
Images on social media showed a large cloud of fire and ash swirling upwards behind the roof.
The Shanghai Fire Department said at Weibo that it had dispatched more than 500 employees shortly after the incident.
The Ministry of Emergency Management has also sent a group of experts to the scene, state-owned CCTV reported.
