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| A sign for a Sinopec station is seen in Hong Kong on Aug 26, 2014. (File photo by=AFP/Alex Ogle) |
[아시아뉴스통신=레악카나 기자] A fire broke out at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical plant in Shanghai early on Saturday (Jun 18), killing one person, the company said. A roaring fire was seen engulfing part of a sprawling factory, emitting columns of thick black smoke, in a video posted on Twitter by the state-backed Shanghai Daily, Reuters reported.
The fire at one of China's biggest refining and petrochemicals plants started around 4 am local time and had been brought under control by 9am but "was difficult to handle", state media Xinhua reported, citing fire officials. It was expected to continue burning for some time. The driver of a third-party transport vehicle died and a company employee suffered a minor injury, said a Sinopec representative. He said that the fire affected the ethylene glycol facility at the plant in Jinshan, a southwestern suburb of China's financial capital.
State-owned Sinopec said on its official Weibo account that it was monitoring volatile organic compounds and impact on rainwater outlets and that no impact on the surrounding water environment had been found. Sinopec Shanghai has a processing capacity for 16 million tonnes of crude oil a year and 700,000 tonnes of ethylene, according to its website. It is building a 3.5 billion yuan (US$520 million) carbon fiber project as it seeks to diversify away from refining and focus on resin and fibres.
