The Night Sky on Fire

(News Today) - Firefighters today extinguished a fire that raged for more than 15 hours after two oil pipeline exploded at a Chinese port. An explosion at a pipe transporting crude oil from a ship to a storage tank blew up yesterday evening, causing a blast at a second, nearby duct.

More than 2,000 firefighters and 338 engines from 14 different cities worked through the night in the north-eastern port of Dalian to put out the blaze which illuminated the sky in a strange orange glow.

China's Air Force also sent two Y8 aircraft to the rescue operation, carrying nearly 18 tonnes of extinguishing agent to deal with flames that leapt into the sky.

Luckily, no one was hurt by the massive inferno that produced a glow that could be seen for miles around. The first of the two pipelines, both owned by state-owned giant China National Petroleum Corporation, exploded at 6pm.

The blaze at the first, larger duct was put out around midnight, but at least five subsequent explosions worsened the fire on the smaller duct.

At the smaller pipeline, the problem was exacerbated because workers were unable to remotely switch off the oil pump because of mechanical failures caused by the fire.

Firefighters had to switch it off by hand before the blaze was eventually extinguished this morning.

Eventually, at 9am, 15 hours after the first explosion, the inferno had been quenched. The ship, a Very Large Crude Carrier, left the port undamaged.

Source : kompas

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