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Chinese village suffers second gas blast, 11,500 people evacuated
AFP
CHONGQING, China
Petroleumworld.com 03 27 06A gas explosion has forced the evacuation of 11,500 people in an area of southwest China where a chemical disaster just over two years ago claimed 243 lives, officials said Monday.
There were no reports of deaths in the latest accident in Chongqing municipality early Saturday, although state media said the local river had been polluted and farmers expressed fears for their livestock.
The accident in Chongqing's Xiaoyang village was the same location as another gas leak in December 2003 that killed 243 people in one of the nation's deadliest industrial incidents.
Both accidents occurred in operations run by the Chuandong Drilling Company, which is owned by China's largest oil firm, the China National Petroleum Corporation.
CNPC confirmed in a statement on Monday the latest accident had happened but officials from the company refused to comment when contacted by AFP.
A broken pipeline leading to a gas well caused Saturday's blast, with local residents reporting hearing a "big bang" and seeing the nearby Gaoqiao river "rolling and foaming", the state-run Xinhua news agency said.
While there were no initial reports of deaths or poisoning, efforts to plug the leak had so far failed and more evacuations were possible, according to Xinhua.
Emergency measures were being implemented to shut down the well, with about 500 cubic meters (17,500 cubic feet) of high-density slurry and 300 tons of cement trucked to the site, Xinhua said.
"We are studying the possible consequences of the capping and trying to figure out how big the evacuation should be," it quoted Chongqing vice mayor Zhou Mubing as saying.
Officials also warned local residents against drinking water from the river as tests revealed it contained methane, possibly one of the gases in the well, the China Daily said.
A spokesman for the local government, He Zhengcai, confirmed to AFP the accident happened at Xiaoyang village in Gaoqiao town of Kaixian county, and the evacuation figure of 11,500.
But he said the river had not been badly contaminated and the air was not dangerously polluted.
A local teacher who was evacuated told AFP officials initially advised staff to stay put, but on Sunday afternoon asked everyone living within one kilometer (about half a mile) from the leak to leave.
"By the time we left, we began to smell the gas," said the Gaoqiao Middle School teacher, declining to be named.
He said he had not heard of anyone being injured but villagers could still suffer economic losses. "They couldn't take their pigs and poultry. If the gas leak can't be capped soon, they will lose all their farm animals."
With memories of 2003 still fresh, farmer Liu Mingdao said villagers fled as soon as they learned of the leak and did not wait for the evacuation order.
"The CNPC and township government officials told us it won't be a big problem, but nobody wanted to take any chances after what happened last time," Liu said.
Aside from the 243 fatalities in the 2003 accident, about 9,000 others were injured, many suffering lung damage and burns to their eyes and skin. More than 60,000 people were evacuated.
Six Chuandong employees were imprisoned for negligence.
Industrial accidents happen frequently in China. Companies, swept up in the nation's profit-at-all-costs economic boom, often neglect safety and equipment standards.
A chemical spill last year in northeast China polluted a major river, cutting off water supplies for millions of residents in Harbin city and leading to contamination downstream in neighboring Russia.
03/27/2006 06 47 GMT - AFP
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