Fires and explosions

Citation

(2002), "Fires and explosions", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 11 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2002.07311aac.005

Fires and explosions

Fires and explosions

17 July 2001 – explosives store, Hengshan County, China

A blast at a storage site for explosives has killed 41 people and injured 89 in north-west China. An early investigation says the accident was caused by explosives illegally stored at a home in Hengshan County in Shaanxi Province. The explosives were owned by a man who moved the materials to his brother's house after officials shut down his illegal factory. Police are pursuing the suspect.

18 July 2001 – The death toll in a massive explosion in rural China is continuing to rise, with some local estimates putting the final figure as high as 300. The blast, which happened in Mafang village in central Shaanxi province in the early hours of Monday (16 July) morning, left an enormous crater where up to 30 houses once stood, a worker at the local post office said yesterday. The impact of the explosion was felt at least 30km away, locals said. Hospitals in the area said up to 200 people were being treated for injuries. "More than 100 villagers died before they could get to hospital", a source at the nearby Hengshan County No. 2 Hospital said.

24 July 2001 – coal mine, Jiangsu, China

Rescue workers have pulled 51 bodies from an illegally operated coal pit in the south-eastern province of Jiangsu and another 41 are feared dead after a gas blast ripped through the pit, a local official said today. The official in Xuzhou, 300km north of the provincial capital Nanjing, said that there was little hope for the 41 miners still missing after Sunday's (22 July) blast, which was caused by a build-up of gas. Doctors said today that the 13 injured miners, including three women, who were rescued were in stable conditions. Casualties could have been even higher except some miners whose names appeared on the duty roster did not show up for work, said the official in charge of rescue operations, who declined to be identified. "We keep finding more dead bodies but haven't been able to take some of them out", he said today. "At this stage, hope of survival is almost zero for those still trapped in the pit." Nevertheless, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday that Premier Zhu Rongji had ordered "an all-out effort" to save the trapped miners. The blast ripped through the mine while the miners were working in a shaft 260m below the surface. Xinhua said the mine was operating without a licence and was ordered to halt production last month as part of a national crackdown on illegally run mines, but it reopened earlier this month. The mine's contractor had been detained, Xinhua said. It quoted Mr Zhu and other top leaders as saying illegal mines were "like time bombs and must be resolutely shut down to safeguard the security of people's lives". The State Council ordered all state-owned small mines to shut down for safety checks in mid-June and stepped up a crackdown on tens of thousands of illegal, privately run mines across the country. But the mines keep re-opening in poor rural areas with high unemployment where workers are prepared to risk their lives for a job and a meagre salary.