Tag: gas explosion
At Least 26 Dead In Taiwan Gas Explosions

At Least 26 Dead In Taiwan Gas Explosions

By Yu-Tzu Chiu, dpa

TAIPEI, Taiwan — At least 26 people were killed and some 270 injured in several explosions caused by gas leaks in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, local authorities said Friday.

Four firefighters were among the dead. They had been called to the scene late on Thursday after the underground explosions cratered large boulevards and rendered streets impassable by ambulances.

The explosions caused houses to collapse and cars to overturn along six kilometers of road, local media reported.

“Based on our preliminary investigation, the gases spilled include propene,” Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch told a news conference in Taipei, referring to a highly flammable, nearly odorless petrochemical that runs through an underground pipeline in the city.

Chang said the source of the gas, a by-product in the processing of fossil fuels, had been cut off. Kaohsiung is one of Taiwan’s centers of petrochemical production.

Thousands of emergency workers and soldiers were called to help with the rescue effort early Friday. Local TV showed residents joining firefighters Friday in the search for possible survivors.
More than 12,000 families lost their electricity supply. Natural gas lines connecting 23,000 household users were also cut, Kaohsiung’s local government said.

Some residents interviewed by local broadcasters expressed their terror in the wake of the explosions, saying that the resultant chaos had felt like a war.

More than 1,000 residents in the affected area have been evacuated to schools nearby, according to the local government. Several people were reported missing, including city officials who arrived at the scene late Thursday.

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu said several petrochemical companies had pipelines in Chian-Chen district where the explosion occurred. The district contains both factories and residential buildings.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah arrived in Kaohsiung Friday afternoon, expressing his condolences to affected residents.

Residents complained about the city’s slow response to the disaster. A resident interviewed by TVBS said that he had reported a gas smell to the police three hours before the explosions. “But none of them took action to cut off the pipes. Why not?” he said.

Jiang ordered that, beginning Aug. 5, flags in Taiwan would fly at half-mast for three days after the July 31 Kaohsiung explosions and the plane crash on July 23 on Penghu Island.

President Ma Ying-jeou also expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and said Friday that pipes used by petrochemical plants under all urban areas in Taiwan would be checked.

The state-run Central News Agency reported Friday that three major underground pipes in Chian-Chen district, where the explosion occurred, are managed by three companies.

CPC Corporation vice president Chang Ray-chung said a pipe leading to its Kaohsiung plant, which is an integrated oil refining and petrochemical production facility, remained normal Friday.
The other two pipelines are managed by LCY Chemical Corp and China Petrochemical Development Corporation. Both denied any involvement in the blasts, local media reported.

LCY Chemical Corp, which makes petrochemical products, denied accusations of poor management of its propene pipes Friday. Local newspapers reported there was something wrong on Thursday during the transmission of propene from China General Terminal & Distribution Corporation to LCY.

LCY spokeswoman Abby Pan told a news conference Friday afternoon that the pipes on the scene of the explosions are larger than LCY’s. “Those are large diameter pipes, whose diameter is 8 inches (20 centimetres). The diameter of our pipes is 4 inches,” she said.

Kaohsiung-based environmental groups Friday urged the government to make public the map of all the underground pipelines built by petrochemical companies.

“The government should increase its capacity to deal with emergencies of chemical accidents. The city should stop setting up more petrochemical companies. Don’t risk our lives,” Lee Ken-cheng of Citizen of the Earth Taiwan told a news conference.

AFP Photo/Sam Yeh

Interested in world news? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

Natural Gas Firm Downplays Threat To Washington Town After Explosion

Natural Gas Firm Downplays Threat To Washington Town After Explosion

By Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times

The owner of a natural gas facility downplayed the danger to residents after an explosion at the facility injured four people and forced the evacuation of a small town in southern Washington on Monday morning.

The processing facility is owned by Northwest Pipeline, a subsidiary of Williams Partners, a Tulsa, Okla.-based energy company. The facility is located 2 miles west of Plymouth, whose 300 to 400 residents were ordered to evacuate after the 8:20 a.m. blast.

The company was investigating the cause of the explosion. But Williams Partners said it did not appear to have been caused by a pipeline rupture but rather occurred inside a liquefied natural gas storage facility, according to a statement from the company.

The facility’s employees were evacuated, and at least one worker was injured, the company said. (The other three injured were reported by sheriff’s officials; it wasn’t immediately clear who they were or the extent of their injuries.)

Concerns about further danger arose after the blast sent debris and metal shrapnel into a 1.2-billion-cubic-foot storage tank that was at least partly filled, Benton County Sheriff Steve Keane told the Los Angeles Times.

The tank began to leak, sending out fumes, he said. The facility was “immediately shut down” and then evacuated after the explosion, the company said in a statement.

It downplayed the possibility of further danger to residents.

“We believe that only natural gas was released and it evaporated into the atmosphere,” Williams spokesman Tom Droege said in the statement. “There is no hazardous vapor drifting toward residents in the area. The tanks involved were about one-third full of liquefied natural gas.”

Sheriff Keane said authorities had evacuated residents to Umatilla, Ore., just across the Columbia River, as a precaution.

Photo: Tim Evanson via Flickr