Blast rips through chemical plant in southern China

Hundreds of firefighters, 40 trucks tackle blaze at Zhuhai factory found to have 15 potential safety hazards during inspection last summer

Workers evacuated but local officials say there were no reports of any injuries or environmental damage

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Hundreds of firefighters and 40 trucks tackled the blaze in Guangdong. Photo: Weibo

Published: 8:24pm, 14 Jan 2020Updated: 4:17pm, 17 Feb 2020

Workers at a petrochemical factory in southern China had to be evacuated on Tuesday when a spark in an oil refinery unit caused an explosion that sent a giant fireball and dense black smoke high into the air, state media reported.

Hundreds of firefighters and 40 fire trucks were dispatched to tackle the blaze, which happened at about 1.40pm at the plant run by Zhuhai Changlian Petrochemical in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, state broadcaster CCTV said.

The report included footage of the blast recorded by witnesses and shared on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.

The blast happened at a plant run by Zhuhai Changlian Petrochemical. Photo: Weibo

While there were no reports of any injuries, the work safety supervision unit at the Zhuhai Economic and Technological Development Zone, where the plant is located, said that an unspecified number of people working in the vicinity of the blast were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

It said also that an initial investigation suggested there had not been any toxic spills.

“The fire has already been put out, and on-site environmental monitoring stations have shown no signs of abnormalities,” it said in a statement.