Blaze doused at chemical storage site

Firefighters have brought a massive blaze under control at a chemical and fuel storage facility in Jingjiang, Jiangsu province, following an explosion and fire on Friday morning.

There were no casualties.

The fire and explosion brought back memories of a similar situation in Tianjin last year in which the fire spread and 165 people lost their lives.

According to Meng Guoping, deputy director of Taizhou city, which has jurisdiction over the county-level city of Jingjiang, the fire department located the heart of the fire and isolated it, so the blaze could not spread to other chemicals.

"The chemicals that burned included methanol," said Meng. "Since the blast, departments concerned with safety supervision, environmental protection and water-control have monitored the surrounded area and ensured the environment remains safe."

According to the Jingjiang government's microblog, the fire started at around 9:40 am local time in a pumping exchange station belonging to the Jiangsu Deqiao Storage Company.

Ni Bin, the top official responsible for Jingjiang, ordered the evacuation of people living nearby in the aftermath of the blast and called on firefighters to ensure there were no further explosions and that the blaze did not spread.

The Jiangsu Deqiao Storage Company, which is owned by Singapore-listed Hengyang Petrochemical Logistics, has 42 chemical tanks at the site. The tanks are capable of storing 126,000 sq meters of product, according to the company's website.

Of the 42 storage tanks, 30 were being used to store chemicals and 12 were used for diesel, gasoline and fuel oil.

The company started operation in July 2010.

According to thepaper.cn, local people have complained frequently about the company and particularly about what they describe as its pungent emissions. But a company spokesman said the smells had nothing to do with the explosions and fire and were not harmful to health.

"The smells that the local people have complained about come from the tanks' breather valves and are not poisonous," said the man, a director of the company, surnamed Hou.

Hou told thepaper.cn: "Some emissions with pungent smells can diffuse within 2 kilometers."

But Jiangsu Broadcasting noted that some residential buildings were within 500 meters of the site.

In August 2015, explosions at a warehouse in Tianjin claimed the lives of 165 people and caused a directed economic loss of 6.8 billion yuan ($1.02 billion).

Investigations into that massive fire found that the improper and illegal storage of hazardous materials had caused the explosions. Many of those who lost their lives were people who lived in the community.