Hundreds of firefighters tackle oil refinery blaze in northern China
No injuries reported in fire at PetroChina plant in Dalian
A fire that broke out on Thursday at one of the China’s largest oil refineries – run by the state oil giant PetroChina – has been put out with no reported casualties, state media reported.
The blaze came just two months after the Dalian refinery finished major maintenance.
More than 600 firefighters extinguished the blaze at the plant’s 1.4 million-tonnes a year catalytic cracker just after 9 pm and stayed at the scene to make sure equipment at the refinery remained cool, state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday.
The inferno, the latest industrial incident to rock the port city of Dalian, started at about 6.40pm due to a broken seal in a feed pump, CCTV said.
A spokesperson for PetroChina said the equipment connected to the catalytic cracker has been suspended. The other units in the refinery were not affected.
The unit that caught fire produces all oil products, but is geared towards petrol, according to a Singapore based trader.
Firefighters battled huge flames and billowing smoke, pictures on the People’s Daily social media account showed.
Environmental inspectors are carrying out checks, but said containment pools installed at the refinery had prevented pollutants from entering coastal waters. Nearby air quality monitoring stations showed no signs of abnormal emissions in the area, CCTV reported.
An explosion at the refinery left two people injured and two missing four years ago.
Dalian was also the site of one of China’s biggest known oil spills when a pipeline blast put hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the sea in July 2010.
