(L) Firefighters face a mountain of rubble as they search for bodies when residential buildings collapsed on Oct. 10, 2016, in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. (R) They found a breathing 6-year-old girl. (Photo : Getty Images)
Three separate unfortunate events greeted a brand new week: an industrial plant caught fire in the eastern part of Jiangsu Province, residential buildings collapsed in the southeastern coast of Zhejiang Province and a blast rocked a factory on the western side of Shandong Province.
On Sunday, at about 1:50 p.m., a fire hit the Jinlingshihua Nanjing Refinery in Qixia District in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, when one of its equipment exploded after it burst into flames, reported Xinhua.
Though the blaze was not captured by a photo posted by People’s Daily on its official Twitter account, the picture showed billows of black smoke rising above the refinery.
Local media reported no casualties.
Jinlingshihua Nanjing Refinery is a subsidiary of Beijing-based China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group). The state-owned company, established in 1998, introduces itself on its website as “a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group.”
Four multi-storey apartment buildings collapsed on Monday at about 4 or 4:30 a.m. in Lucheng District in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, reported different news outlets.
The incident has so far claimed 22 lives. Rescuers pulled 28 people from the rubble where only six survived, including a young girl rescued on Monday night, according to Xinhua.
Some 800 people joined the rescue operations. The search stopped at about 1 a.m., Tuesday.
The cause of the collapse remains unknown.
A local resident, talking to Beijing News, said that those buildings were scheduled for demolition two-three years ago, reported China Daily. He added that the buildings offered cheap rent to migrant workers.
According to news.163.com, Wenzhou Daily reported that authorities checked the condition of the structures in Lucheng District in 2014. They identified 993 buildings to be “dangerous” and therefore unsuitable for residence; in addition, 448 others needed repairs.
A workroom in Qilu Pharmaceutical’s manufacturing site in Licheng District in Jinan, Shandong Province, experienced a blast on Monday after a pressure vessel containing ethanol exploded, reported Xinhua.
The explosion released a small amount of non-toxic gas, and the blast was so strong that some people residing near the site felt it. According to them, a burning smell permeated the air.
No casualties were reported. Authorities are still investigating the incident.
Qilu Pharmaceutical, according to its website, ranked second in the “2016 China Medicine R&D Product Line Best Industrial Enterprises List” and made it to ninth place at the “Top 100 Enterprises in the PRC Pharmaceutical Industry of 2015.”
The China National Pharmaceutical Industry Information Center spearheads the creation of the said lists.
