Fires and explosions

Citation

(2006), "Fires and explosions", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 15 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2006.07315eac.005

Fires and explosions

Fires and explosions

21 April 2005Coal Mine, Gediz Area, Turkey

A gas explosion has brought down a mining shaft in western Turkey, trapping about 20 miners, reports say. Two workers were rescued, according to the Anatolia news agency, but fires prevented rescuers reaching the others. The mine where the accident happened is about 30 kilometres from Gediz in the western Province of Kutahya.

22 April 2005. Officials in Turkey say all 17 workers trapped after a gas explosion in a coal mine in the country's west have died. The 16 miners and an engineer were trapped in a gallery about 300 metres underground, after the explosion caused a cave-in and sparked a fire. Two slightly injured workers were rescued from the state-run mine after the explosion. “The bodies are badly charred” said an official in Gediz, where the explosion happened. He said that authorities were trying to lead the grieving families of the victims away before removing the bodies from the mine. A specialised search-and-rescue team, flown to the site on a helicopter, managed to enter the gallery only after the fire was extinguished.

21 April 2005Factory, Chambishi, Zambia

Officials looking for the cause of a blast at a Zambian mine that killed 51 people said today their probe was made more difficult because everyone inside the explosives factory where it occurred died. Mangled pieces of metal littered the factory, as Chambishi came to grips with one of Zambia's worst-ever industrial accidents. Rescue workers carefully moved blocks, soot and glass to see whether they could recover any more bodies or body parts – crucial in the deeply traditional southern African country where all parts of a corpse must be buried together. “The death count has climbed to 51. We do not believe that anyone inside the blast area survived” said Wang Aide, Managing Director of the Chineseowned Bgrimm Explosives Plant, on the premises of Chambishi copper mine, 250 miles north of Lusaka. Bgrimm is a major supplier of explosives for Chambishi, owned by China's NFC Mining Africa Plc., and other copper mines in Zambia. Zambian officials said they had ordered the confiscation of the passports of Wang and other senior Chinese managers at Bgrimm pending an investigation to determine the blast's cause. An eyewitness said yesterday that four of those who died were standing more than 100 metres away from the plant when the blast occurred. Chambishi mine officials said mining operations were not affected by the accident but the disaster was a major blow to Bgrimms' workforce, which comprises 60 permanent staff and as many as 100 contract workers.

22 April 2005Workshop, Qijiang County, Chongqing, China

Around 19 workers were missing and feared dead after an explosion at a chemical workshop in south-west China destroyed the three-storey building, state media reported today. The blast occurred at the Dongxi Chemical Plant in Qijiang county, Chongqing municipality. Ten workers were injured, the Xinhua news agency said. The building was razed with debris found up to 80 metres away. An investigation into the cause of the explosion was under way, Xinhua said.

26 April 2005. Nearly 12 people are confirmed dead after a blast at a chemical plant in south-west China, while seven more are still unaccounted for. The blast destroyed a three-storey building in the outskirts of the industrial city of Chongqing. China's official Xinhua news agency said debris had been found 80m from the scene. It is not known what caused the blast, which occurred on Thursday (21 April), and an investigation is under way.

24 April 2005Coal Mine, Henan Province, China

Eight miners were killed and four were missing after a machine caught fire in a coal mine shaft in China's Henan Province, the official Xinhua news agency reported today. The colliery was supposed to be undergoing maintenance when the fire broke out early yesterday evening and no one should have been working underground, Xinhua quoted local police saying. When the blaze began 79 miners were underground and 67 escaped.

26 April 2005Coalmine, Lac Thuy, Hoa Binh Province, Vietnam

Six people have been killed in an explosion at a private coal mine in northern Vietnam, local police said today. The blast occurred yesterday at a mine in Lac Thuy District in Hoa Binh Province, about 90 kilometres south-east of Hanoi, the police said. When the explosion occurred, six miners were working 28 metres underground and they were all killed, a district policeman said. Initial investigations showed that the explosion was caused by methane gas, the policeman said. It took local authorities five hours to find and remove the bodies from the tunnel, according to the police.

30 April 2005Shaanxi Province, China

A gas explosion in a coal mine in Western China trapped 29 miners, the government said today. The explosion occurred yesterday evening in Hancheng, a city in Shaanxi Province, a major coal-mining area, citing local mine safety officials. There was no immediate word on whether there were any signs the trapped miners might be alive.

7 May 2005. Around 22 miners were confirmed dead from a coal mine blast on 29 April in Hancheng City in north-west Shaanxi Province, the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety said on its web site.

8 June 2005. Police arrested five suspects accused of the responsibility for a deadly coal mine blast which claimed 22 lives on 28 April in Hancheng, in China's Shaanxi Province, according to local police today. The five suspects were accused of negligence in maintaining coal mine safety, including the legal representative of the Coal Mine Guo Zongwen, Deputy Head of the Coal Mine He Zongfa, Deputy Manager Jia Linding, and Technicians Han Yongzhang and Luo Peicai. The accident occurred at about 21.15 hour, April 28, in the Shangyukou Coal Mine, a private coal mine near Xihancun Village, trapping 32 miners working underground. Only ten people survived.

11 May 2005Coal Mine, Qitaihe, Heilongjiang Province, China

Two people are dead and seven missing following a coal mine gas explosion in Qitaihe in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province today. A number of 11 miners were underground when the explosion occurred at 17.00 hour, today. Two narrowly escaped, while nine were trapped in the mine. Rescue efforts are underway. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

13 May 2005. A gas explosion at a coal mine in North-Eastern China killed nine miners, the government said today. Two miners escaped after the blast, which occurred Wednesday (11 May) evening in Qitaihe, a city in the North-Eastern Province of Heilongjiang, while nine were trapped underground, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Rescue operations ended yesterday when the bodies of the nine were recovered, but work was continuing to remove toxic gas from the mine shaft so that investigators can visit the site, it said. The two survivors were hospitalized, the report said.

7 May 2005Coal Mine, Xinganmengtuquan County, China

Five more miners have been confirmed dead following a blast at a coal mine in Northern China's Inner Mongolia, bringing the total death toll to 12, a government department reports. The blast occurred at the Wanlong Mine in Xinganmengtuquan county on Wednesday (4 May), with the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety reporting on its web site that the five additional bodies were found today. A total of 19 miners were in the mine shaft when the blast occurred, but seven of them escaped, it said. A flood at the Tengda Coal Mine near Jiaohe city in North-Eastern Jilin Province on 29 April resulted in the deaths of 27 miners.

14 May 2005Coal Mine, Shanxi Province, China

A gas explosion at a mine in Northern China killed at least 14 miners, the government said today. The blast yesterday at the Longhua Colliery in Shanxi Province occurred when 31 workers were underground. Only 16 managed to escape but 14 were killed and one remained missing.

17 May 2005Refinery, Texas City, Texas, United States

BP said today it accepted responsibility for a deadly explosion at its Texas City, Texas, oil refinery that killed 15 workers and injured 170 others on 23 March. BP said employees made “deeply disturbing” mistakes that led to the blast at the nation's fourth largest refinery, but a labour union official said the London-based company failed to provide a safe workplace. Five BP employees, two of them supervisors, were fired for their roles in the events, according to sources familiar with the matter. A company official said she was unable to confirm any firings related to the incident. Ross Pillari, the President of BP's North American subsidiary, BP Products North America, said at a news conference in Texas City this morning, “we regret that our mistakes have caused so much suffering”. Pillari said the company was trying to contact families of those who were killed, and hoped to reach fair settlements without the need for lawsuits. Industry sources said they expected the explosion to cost BP less than $400 million (£218 million), down from initial estimates by risk analysts of about $1 billion. Pillari said supervisors and labourers working on one of the refinery's fuel-processing units failed to follow correct procedures and failed to sound evacuation alarms when they realized there was a problem. A tower on the isomerisation unit, used in production of gasoline, was overfilled with volatile, heavier-than-air hydrocarbons, which were then overheated. The liquid flowed into a blow-down drum, which has a 113-foot stack and is intended to contain and then dissipate liquid from the unit. “It was not designed to receive and contain the massive volume of liquid that poured into it 23 March” Pillari said. That overflow shot out of the stack like a “geyser” witnesses have told government investigators. Liquid and vapour flowed to the ground, some of it pooling underneath temporary trailers where contract workers were meeting. An unknown ignition source triggered the blast, which was felt five miles away. All those killed were in the temporary trailers within 150 feet of the unit. United Steelworkers Regional Vice President Gary Beevers said the design of the unit where the explosion occurred and the location of temporary workers' trailers near the unit led to the tragedy. The isomerisation unit should have been connected to the refinery's flare system, which burns off excess hydrocarbons, to reduce the chances of an uncontrolled explosion, Beevers said. Because of the Texas City explosion, BP has decided to replace blowdown drums with flare systems at its Texas City Whiting, Indiana refineries. Beevers said the union had repeatedly called for elimination of the blow-down drum. Pillari said the refinery's owners had also recommended switching to a flare system. Locating the trailers so close to units processing volatile chemicals also placed workers at greater risk, Beevers said. BP's decision to locate a trailer within 150 feet of the isomerisation unit was made after reviews, none of which considered “the possibility of such significant release of hydrocarbons from the stack” Pillari said. Since, the blast, the company has said trailers may not be located within 500 feet of blow-down drums and flares and non-essential workers will be removed from process areas. “They failed to provide a safe workplace” Beevers said. The United Steelworkers, which represents workers at the plant and is the largest industrial union in North America, will carry out its own investigation into the blast. Beevers said:

We're going to spend whatever money we have to, we're going to use whatever resources the United Steelworkers has to find out what happened and make sure this never happens again.

Pillari said the company is contacting survivors of those killed in the blast to discuss compensation. “Our goal is to provide fair compensation without the need for lawsuits and lengthy court proceedings” Pillari said. At least 40 plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against BP in Galveston County District Court, said a lawyer who has brought 11 of the cases. “I think the victims will be encouraged that BP has taken responsibility for the tragedy” said Houston Attorney Terry Bryant. “And this may allow the cases to move forward more quickly”.

26 May 2005. BP has revised its statement that workers were primarily to blame for the Texas City refinery blast that killed 15 people and injured 170 others. Now, BP officials are saying that worker error was a critical factor in the 23 March explosion, but not the deeper cause. A BP spokesman says the company “simply used the wrong language” to describe the findings of an interim report on the explosion released last week. BP spokesman Hugh Depland says the mischaracterization was the company's fault. He says the true causes have not yet been identified. Since, the report, BP has taken heat from union leaders and victims. They say BP is blaming low and mid level workers and ignoring management responsibility. A union official says management had overlooked major safety issues for years.

25 May 2005. The energy company BP PLC has backed off its earlier report that workers were primarily to blame for a March refinery explosion that killed 15 people a report criticized by union officials. BP officials said that while worker error was a critical factor in the 23 March blast in Texas City, it was not the deeper cause. The company said it had not yet identified the cause. “We simply used the wrong language to describe the report's findings” BP Spokesman Hugh Depland said Monday (23 May) of the interim report released last week. “Our fault”. Most of the 15 who were killed worked for J.E. Merit Constructors Inc., a subsidiary of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. in Pasadena. Since, the initial report, BP has taken heat from union leaders and victims, who said BP was blaming low and midlevel workers and ignoring management responsibility. “As far as I'm concerned they tried to put the blame on lower-level workers and make them scapegoats” said Gary Beevers, Region Director of the United Steelworkers. “We are going forward with our own investigation”. Last week, Ross Pillari, President of Houston-based BP Products North America, said the core issue was workers not following procedures, and that supervisors and hourly workers face discipline.

18 July 2005. Three of the lawsuits stemming from a deadly blast at an oil refinery in Texas have been settled. Two of those suits were filed in June by the families of Larry Thomas and Susan Taylor, who were killed in the Mar 23 explosion at BP's Texas City plant. In all, 15 people were killed in the blast and more than 170 were injured. All the settlements were sealed. A filing made earlier this year by BP with the US Securities and Exchange Commission said the company expected settlements to be costly. Lawsuits over deaths and injuries from the blasts involve about 300 individual plaintiffs, according to court records. Additional lawsuits have been filed by fired employees who claim BP wrongly blamed them for the deadly explosion. BP has issued statements saying human error led to the blast. Investigators with the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board blame alarm systems and level indicators, saying both failed to warn BP refinery workers.

17 May 2005Coal Mine, Panzhihua, Sichuan Province, China

A gas explosion has killed 21 miners in south-Western China, Xinhua news agency said today, the latest in a string of accidents in the world's deadliest mining industry. A number of 31 workers were working underground when the accident happened last Thursday (12 May) at a small coal pit in the city of Panzhihua in Sichuan Province, it said. “The initial investigation shows the accident happened due to improper exploration and chaotic administration,” Xinhua said without elaborating. Ten miners had been rescued, it added. It did not say why it had taken so long to report news of the disaster.

18 May 2005Coal Mine, Kemerovo Region, Russia

A methane blast rocked coal mine No. 12 in Kiselyovsk in the Kemerovo region at 13.30, today. “Preliminary reports indicate that 132 miners were underground at the moment when the blast occurred” Russian Emergency Situations Ministry Spokesman Viktor Beltsov said. The ministry has no information about possible casualties now. Seven mine rescue squads have been engaged in a rescue operation, Beltsov said.

19 May 2005Coal Mine, Chengde City Area, Hebei Province, China

Nearly 51 miners are missing and feared dead after a gas explosion ripped through the Huanerhe Coal Mine near Chengde city in Northern China's Hebei Province. “At around 03.00 today a gas explosion accident at the Huanerhe mining company (state-owned local mine) in Hebei Province's Chengde city occurred” the State Administration of Mine Safety said on its web site. “Fifty-one mine workers were in the mine shaft and it is not clear if they are alive”. Local and provincial leaders have rushed to the state-owned mine to oversee rescue operations, while a group of experts had also been dispatched to investigated the cause, the administration said.

20 May 2005. The death toll in a coal mine blast in Chengde City of north China's Hebei province has risen to seven, as five more bodies were found this afternoon, said sources with the rescue headquarters. The blast occurred at around 03.00 hour, yesterday, when 85 miners were working underground at the Nuan'erhe Coal Mine in Chengde City. Of them, 34 were lifted out of the shaft, and 51 others were trapped underground. The bodies of two miners were discovered this morning, and rescuers found another five bodies in the afternoon. The fate of the other 44 trapped miners is still unknown, and rescue work is going on.

22 May 2005. Chinese rescuers found the bodies of 40 coal miners killed in a mine explosion last week, official media reported today. Ten miners remained missing after the explosion Thursday (19 May) at the Nuanerhe colliery in Chengde county, Hebei Province, about 200 kilometres northeast of Beijing, Xinhua news agency said.

24 May 2005Factory, Taichung City, Taiwan

A pre-dawn fire engulfed a plastics factory in central Taiwan and killed at least nine people, including two children, police said today. They were sleeping on the second floor of the sheet-metal building in Taichung city when the fire broke out at around 04.00 hour. The cause of the fire was not known. “Most people died of suffocation as they tried to escape” a prosecutor at the scene told reporters. The owner of the factory said he did not know how many people stayed in the building on Monday night as it was open to employees, as well as their relatives and friends. Police were still searching the collapsed building to see if any more bodies were buried inside.

30 May 2005Coal Mine, Maopingchang, Hubei Province, China

A coal mine blast occurred yesterday morning in the county of Yuan'an, central China's Hubei Province, leaving three dead and eight others injured. The local government said the gas blast happened at 07.15 hour, at the Hongjiaya Coal Mine of Maopingchang Township. Out of 22 miners working underground, 11 managed to escape after the blast. All the eight injured are in stable condition, according to the local hospital source. The local government has formed a team to investigate the cause.

8 June 2005Coal Mine, Loudi, Hunan Province, China

An explosion in a coalmine in southern China killed 21 workers and left four missing, the government reported today. The State Administration of Mine Safety said on its web site that the blast occurred at the Zijiang Mine in Loudi, a city in Hunan Province, when 224 workers were underground. It reported that 199 miners escaped to safety while 21 died. It also said that four miners were still missing and that rescue efforts were under way. The cause of the accident was under investigation.

11 June 2005Hotel, Shantou Citu, Guangdong Province, China

A hotel fire in southern China has killed at least 30 people and left 15 others injured. China's state media says the blaze took over the top three storeys of the hotel in Shantou City in Guangdong Province. Officials say four of the 15 injured are in a serious condition in hospital.

15 June 2005. Chinese police have arrested four managers of a hotel in the southern Province of Guangdong for a fire that killed 31 people last week, mostly karaoke hostesses, the China Daily reported today. The newspaper said one of the men, who it described as the boss of Huanan Hotel, was accused of preventing hotel staff from calling the fire brigade. “He is also said to have run off as the flames took hold” it said. The blaze broke out shortly after noon on Friday (10 June) and spread through three floors of the hotel in the City of Shantou. Many of the victims were women working as hostesses in the hotel's karaoke rooms, the China Daily said.

3 July 2005Coal Mine, Ningwu, China

A gas explosion ripped through in a coal mine in Ningwu County, North China's Shanxi Province yesterday killing 19 miners. The Jiajiabao Coal Mine was a illegal township mine, quoted by local officials. Around 34 miners were working underground at the time of the explosion. Four managed to escape and 11 others were rescued. Provincial officials rushed to the site for rescue.

4 July 2005. Nearly 19 miners were killed as a gas explosion ripped through in a coal mine in Ningwu County, Shanxi Province, Saturday (2 July), Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The Jiajiabao Coal Mine was an illegal township mine, Xinhua quoted local officials as saying. A total of 34 miners were working underground at the time of the explosion. Four managed to escape and 11 others were rescued. Provincial officials rushed to the site for rescue, Xinhua said.

11 July 2005Coal Mine, Shenlong, Xinjiang, China

More than 80 men are trapped after an explosion at a coal mine in Western China, state media report. The blast happened at the Shenlong Coal Mine in the western region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency said.

11 July 2005. At least 22 Chinese miners were killed and 60 more trapped underground today when a build up of gas exploded in a mine shaft. It was the latest disaster in the world's deadliest mining industry. The explosion rocked the Shenlong Coal Mine in the far-western region of Xinjiang, trapping 87 miners, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Five miners had been rescued, Xinhua said. An official with the Safety Production and Supervision Management Bureau in Xinjiang's Fukang county put the number rescued at six.

12 July 2005. A gas explosion ripped through a mine in China's north-west Xinjiang region, killing at least 40 and leaving 43 unaccounted for. A total of 87 people were working in the Shenlong Coal Mine, in Xinjiang's Fukang City, when the blast hit the shaft at 04.00 hour. Only four miners have been found alive. “At 08.00 hour, rescuers entered the mine to find the missing miners” a man at the mine's office said:

There are 20 rescuers in the shaft right now, but the situation is unclear. We don't know what the situation is like down there. There are eight to nine ambulances above ground waiting.

12 July 2005. Chinese rescue workers have winched 66 bodies from a mine shaft in the remote north-west of the country after a gas explosion, and 17 miners were missing feared dead, Xinhua news agency said today. The blast hit the Shenlong Coal Mine, 60 kilometres from Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, in the early hours of yesterday. “The remains of the 66 miners killed in the gas blast have been hoisted to the ground” Yu Zhengui, Deputy Secretary-general of the Xinjiang Government, was quoted as saying, adding that the chance of finding the missing 17 alive was slim.

25 July 2005. The last missing body from the gas blast that hit the Shenlong Coal Mine of Fukang County on 11 July, was recovered today, the regional government said. Some 87 people were working in the shaft at the time of the explosion. Only four of them survived the disaster. Within two days after the accident, 82 bodies were recovered, however, further rescue for the one missing was dampened by the broken down ventilation system, shaft collapse and high density of poisonous gas. China's work safety watchdog has blamed the coal mine blast on a number of safety loopholes, including overproduction, lack of a work safety license and bad management. Local police have detained five people, who were accused of being accountable for the coal mine gas blast.

12 July 2005Hospital, San Jose, Costa Rica

A fire that raged for three hours at a major public hospital in Costa Rica's capital has killed least 15 people. The blaze broke out early in the morning at the Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia Hospital, on San Jose's east end, triggering scenes of panic and desperation as some tried to flee by smashing windows and tying bed sheets together. Fire-fighters battled the fire, which was on the upper floors, for about three hours before it was brought under control. Many patients have been evacuated to other areas of the facility and to other hospitals. Fire-fighters say the charred remains of 14 patients and a nurse who suffocated have been identified. Guillermo Arroyo of the Red Cross warns that “unfortunately, the number of dead will rise because there are areas we have not been able to get into”.

18 July 2005. A fire broke out on fourth floor of “Hospital R.A. Calderon Guardia” at 02.20, Tuesday (12 July). The cause was due to a lighting fault. Fire spread quickly to fifth floor and neurosurgery ward. Around 16 patients and three nurses died. Hospital obsolete in around 63 per cent of structures, no fire escapes, etc. Insurance covers only building. There was no third party nor equipment insurance. Preliminary calculations estimate losses of US$20m of which US$8m is believed to be lost in structures.

11 July 2005Premises, Ukhta, Russia

A blaze raced through a store selling gas fireplaces in a northern Russian city today, killing 19 people and injuring 17, emergency officials said. The cause of the fire in the City of Ukhta was not immediately clear, but the local prosecutor's office said it appeared to have broken out after a container with a flammable substance was thrown into the store, possibly as part of a business conflict, the Interfax news agency reported. The second floor of the building was still ablaze two hours after the blast and 70 fire-fighters were trying to extinguish it, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. State TV channel Rossiya said women and children were among the victims. The Emergency Situations Ministry put the toll at 19 dead and 17 injured. Nearly 30 people were evacuated from the building, Ministry Spokeswoman Irina Andriyanova said. Vadim Zhuravlev, a Duty Officer at the Komi Regional Department of the Russian Interior Ministry, said eight people had died of smoke inhalation. Ukhta is located in the far northern region of Komi, about 800 miles north-east of Moscow.

19 July 2005Coal Mine, Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province, China

A coal mine explosion trapped 19 miners in Tongchuan City in China's north-western Shaanxi Province this afternoon, the provincial watchdog on coal mine production safety released. The explosion happened at the Jinsuo No. 5 Coal Mine at 14.30 hour, today, when 22 miners were working underground. Only three escaped, according to the provincial administration of coal mine safety supervision. The three miners have been hospitalised and rescue work is underway.

27 July 2005Coal Mine, Fengxiangpo, Guizhou Province, China

Totally 14 miners were reported missing after a gas explosion early today in south-west China's Guizhou Province, the local mine safety authorities said. The accident occurred at 01.30 hour, today at the Fengxiangpo Coal Mine, a village run pit in Kaiyang County, on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Guiyang, said a spokesman with the provincial coal mine safety supervision bureau. He said Fengxiangpo is a licensed coal mine which basically meets production safety standards. Rescuers are busy searching for the trapped miners, whose whereabouts are still unknown.

22 July 2005Wildfires, Spain

A fire that ravaged a nature reserve in central Spain killing 11 fire-fighters was declared under control yesterday as the official in charge of environmental issues in the regional government resigned over the blaze. The deadliest fire in the country in 15 years sparked fierce debate in Spain, with the opposition criticizing the apparent lack of coordination between regional authorities and the government in Madrid when the blaze broke out on Saturday (16 JulY). A statement from the regional government said the blaze was “under control” as of early yesterday. It said a few minor fires had been seen, but they did not cross the firebreak marked out to stop the main blaze from spreading.