One person killed in fire at Sinopec refinery in China
21 June 2022
A fire at one of China’s largest refining and petrochemical plants killed one person on June 18. The incident happened at Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company’s plant in Shanghai and sent a thick column of black smoke across the city.
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The fire broke out at around 04:00 local time, state new agency Xinhua reports, before it was extinguished by 09:00 after firefighters had a “difficult” time fighting the blaze. Sinopec said that a driver of a third-party transport vehicle died in the incident while an employee suffered minor injuries.
Sinopec said that the plant’s ethylene glycol facility was affected but that the shutdown would not have a significant impact on the market. The facility has a processing capacity of 16 million tonnes of crude oil a year and 700,000 tonnes of ethylene.
The explosion that caused the blaze was reportedly heard from up to four miles (6km) away, local news outlets said. The Shanghai fire department sent around 500 firefighters to the scene to bring the blaze under control.
Sinopec said that it would cooperate in any investigation to find the cause of the fire. The company added that it had been monitoring for any possible environmental impact as a result of the fire, however there was no immediate damage to local water supplies or toxic fumes.
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