Firefighters put out the blaze at the scene of the accident in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, March 21. (Photo/chinanews.com)
A deadly chemical blast occurred at about 2:48 pm Thursday following a fire that broke out in a chemical factory in an industrial park in Xiangshui county, East China's Jiangsu province.
Sixty-four people were killed so far.
Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Co, which runs the factory, was not the only company involved. Sixteen surrounding enterprises and multiple villages nearby were affected.
Families of workers are running to local hospitals to find whether their loved ones have survived. Local residents have rushed to donate blood for the injured survivors.
The explosion followed a warehouse fire
According to Beijing news, staffs at the Tianjiayi plant said the explosion might have started from a fire in a warehouse storing solid waste.
Zhao Lei (a pseudonym) was at the scene when the blast occurred. "When I heard the first explosion, the ceiling fell. When I heard the second one, the wall fell."
When the sound came, he was at a workshop on the east side of the incinerator. "It sounded very close. I looked up and saw the incinerator (on the west side of the factory) was in ruins."
When Zhao escaped from the workshop, he found the building full of smoke and saw others also trying to escape.
Fu Mingchi, a security guy at the plant, received a fire call and saw the warehouse on fire.
Zhang Wei (a pseudonym) was delivering natural gas tanks to the plant when the fire broke out.
According to Zhang, three giant, stainless steel, cylindrical buildings caught fire. Two stored liquid benzene, while the other stored methanol.
Established in 2007, the plant is a producer of chemical compounds, such as anisole, m-Phenylenediamine and para-Phenylenediamine.
