Fire at Dalian PetroChina Oil Refinery Raises Environmental Tension in China
A diesel tank in the Dalian PetroChina plant caught fire recently, which would be the company’s fifth major safety incident in just over a year. The tank was storing about 800 tons of fuel when it caught fire. Fortunately, other tanks that were being stored in the same area were not affected and no casualties were reported. Also reported, production facilities were not affected.
This incident comes after another fire in the same facility that occurred in July. Last October, there was yet another fire and in July 2010, PetroChina experienced an explosion resulting in China’s worst ever oil spill.
Dalian citizens are in uproar. This fire comes just two weeks after a 12,000 person demonstration demanding the closure of a chemical plant which had threatened to discharge toxic gases into the air after its protective sea wall was breached by a typhoon. However, PetroChina stated that in this particular case, no pollution or injuries to workers or firefighters occurred.