Fires and explosions

Citation

(1999), "Fires and explosions", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.07308bac.005

Fires and explosions

Fires and explosions

8 April 1998 ­ Henan Province, China

Three major accidents at privately owned coal mines in China's central province of Henan this month have killed 59 people and left 25 missing, state media said today. The China Police Daily said a gas explosion killed 21 miners at a mine in Henan's Hebi city on 2 April and a fire at a mine in Pingdingshan county the next day claimed at least 14 lives. The latest accident was a gas explosion at another Pingdingshan coal mine on 6 April. Sixty-one miners were underground at the time and 25 were still unaccounted for, it said, adding that rescue work was continuing. Local officials said they had yet to confirm the final death tolls of the accidents, but state television late today said a total of 59 people had died and 25 were still missing. The accidents all occurred at privately owned mines that were operating illegally, local officials said. Major accidents in Chinese coal mines killed 2,028 miners last year, up nearly 30 per cent from the previous year, local media have said.

11 April 1998 ­ Donetsk, Ukraine

A combination of lax safety standards and human error caused the blast that killed 63 Ukrainian coal miners last week, a government inquiry said today. "It has to be admitted that work at the pit doesn't always go by the book," Coal Industry Minister Stanyslav Yanko told a news conference. Yanko said the Skochinksy mine had been budgeted to receive less than 40 per cent of its required safety spending in 1998. "There was a lack of funds to make sure safety standards were observed. There was a lack of measures to protect the security of individuals. And the human factor cannot be excluded ­ at the level of the management and of those who failed to carry out instructions," he said. As a result of the report, the director of the mine and four other senior officials were removed from their posts. Yanko repeated government pledges to increase expenditure on mine safety, part of it through an emergency amendment to the 1998 budget which will be put to parliament. The Skochinsky mine will cost around three million hryvnias ($1.5 million) to repair, a process which is expected to take two or three weeks.

16 April 1998 ­ Kanjikode, India

At least nine people were killed and 16 injured today in a blast in a southern India explosives factory, the United News of India reported. It said the cause of the blast in a factory which manufactures explosives for India's defence services was not known. The factory was located at Kanjikode in the southern state of Kerala, close to the town of Palghat on the border with the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. Eight of the injured are reported to be in a serious condition.

5 May 1998 ­ Eastern Sierra Madre Mountains, Mexico

At least 23 people died battling forest fires in central Mexico today, including 19 men who burned to death trying to save their village from the flames, officials said. Nineteen residents of Texocuixpan, some 88 miles east of Mexico City in the central state of Puebla, died overnight yesterday and early today trying to prevent a fire from reaching their village, which was later evacuated. The men raced to dig a ditch in the woods to prevent the blaze from spreading to the village of 500 residents, but the winds changed direction and they were soon trapped by flames. The fire has already burned some 5,000 acres, but officials said nearly 80 per cent of the blaze had been brought under control by this afternoon. Twelve more people remained missing in the area, according to state officials. Four others, including two soldiers and two volunteer firefighters, also died today battling fires in Perote, Veracruz, about 150 miles east of Mexico City, according to resident Ernesto Zedillo. At least 30 fires raged in several central states, officials said, spreading a cloud of smoke and ash which stretched across the country's midsection. Visibility across much of central Mexico dropped to just one or two miles due to the thick smoke, they said. Zedillo visited the area hardest hit by the fires in Puebla, Veracruz and Tlaxcala states and promised aid for residents who had been evacuated. As many as 600 volunteer firefighters were battling the Puebla blaze, which witnesses said began last Friday (1 May), as it neared two other villages in the northern part of the state. Zedillo, accompanied by his Environment Minister, Julias Carabias, said his government would carry out reforestation efforts to replace lost forest. Droughts and unusually high temperatures provoked by the El Nino weather phenomenon have sparked forest fires throughout Mexico this spring, destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of forest and jungle.

6 May 1998 ­ Overwhelmed by careless farmers and arsonists, Mexican officials today scrambled to save the country's fire-ravaged forests and admitted they could do little more than pray for rain. About 100 forest fires continued to rage out of control after at least 23 people died battling blazes in central Mexico on Monday (4 May) and yesterday. Mexico has suffered nearly 9,000 forest fires so far this year which have consumed nearly 550,000 acres of land, according to Environment Ministry statistics. "These are the worst fires we've had in 50 years." Carlos Bonilla, director of analysis for the ministry said. "Ninety percent of the fires are set by man and most of them are premeditated." The government openly admitted it was virtually helpless to prevent the fires and to put out most of them until rain arrives. Environmentalists said only 5 per cent of Mexico's original forests are left after coming under assault for centuries from loggers, grazing livestock and farmers who set fires to clear land for planting in the weeks and months before the rainy season begins, usually around May. Those fires often burn out of control and the situation has been aggravated this year by unusually dry conditions created by the El Nino weather phenomenon. Other fires have been set to turn forest into areas for grazing or construction. Under-funded or non-existent fire departments have been ill-equipped to fight the fires. Often villagers have tried to take their place, using buckets of water or tree branches in futile attempts to stamp out flames. Environmentalists fear fires could continue unabated this year because past El Ninos have resulted in long droughts.

12 May 1998 ­ Donetsk, Ukraine

Five Ukrainian miners died and four were badly injured in a methane gas explosion in a mine in the Donetsk region, an Emergency Ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Spokeswoman Natalya Tsushko said the accident happened late yesterday at the Petrovsky mine as workers were laying explosives. Mykhaylo Volynets, leader of the Independent Coal Miners' Trade Union, blamed lax safety standards for the latest accident in a run-down industry which has now claimed 168 lives this year. He said about 120,000 miners were currently striking at 45 Ukrainian pits in protest against unpaid wages and poor working conditions.

14 May 1998 ­ Scottown, Ohio, USA

Three fireworks dealers have agreed to pay $1.3 million into a settlement fund for victims of a 1996 fire that killed nine people at a fireworks store in southern Ohio, The Plain Dealer reported today. The deal was worked out in closed-door negotiations with a federal judge in Cincinnati, the newspaper said. US District Judge Herman Weber has scheduled a September trial for several other defendants. About 40 shoppers were in the Ohio River Fireworks store in Scottown on 3 July, 1996 when the flames broke out, setting off an explosion that killed nine people and injured 11. A brain-injured man was charged with setting the fire. The dealers that agreed last month to the settlement are South Carolina Distributors Inc., of Cherokee Falls, SC, Atomic Fireworks of Tennessee Inc. of South Pittsburg, TN, and Wet Willy's Fireworks Supermarket of Tennessee in Jasper, TN. All three said they were passively involved in the explosion because they sold fireworks to the shop operated by David J. Pruitt. Todd Hall, 26, who underwent a lobotomy after hitting his head in a skateboarding accident in 1987, was indicted on nine counts of involuntary manslaughter and three counts of aggravated arson but was found incompetent to stand trial. Victims said the dealers placed "ultra-hazardous" fireworks in the nation's stream of commerce and failed to monitor where they were going. The victims also charged the fireworks were in "unreasonably dangerous condition." Numerous defendants in the lawsuit have not settled, including Pruitt, other dealers and manufacturers, and the non-profit trade association for Ohio's fireworks industry. All deny any responsibility for the explosion.

15 May 1998 ­ Dujiangyan, China

At least 14 people were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in south-western China, a government official and a newspaper said today. Rescue workers had recovered 14 bodies from the Dujiang coal mine in Sichuan province's Dujiangyan city after a cave-in caused by an explosion on Wednesday (13 May), a provincial government official said. More than ten people were injured and rushed to hospital, he said. The cause of the blast was still under investigation, the official said. He declined to give further details. The Western China Urban Daily quoted a relative of one of the victims as saying there were more than 40 miners in the pit at the time of the explosion.

16 May 1998 ­ Rawalpindi, Pakistan

At least 12 people were killed and more than 50 injured by a blast in a fire cracker factory in Pakistan today, official news agency APP said. Police and hospital sources said the building, where fire crackers were manufactured and stored, collapsed after a big explosion. APP said fire spread to nearby houses and shops in the congested commercial area of Rawalpindi. The cause of the blast was not immediately known but police said it appeared to be an accident. The dead included three children and two women. Police said more people might be trapped in the rubble and rescuers were trying to find them.

17 May 1998 ­ The death toll in an explosion at a firework factory at Narankari Bazar, Rawalpindi, yesterday has risen to 14 people. Another 56 people were injured in the explosion.

16 May 1998 ­ Manila, Philippines

At least 22 patients were believed killed when fire engulfed a hospital in the Philippine capital Manila early today, officials said. A total of ten bodies had been recovered from the hospital site ten hours after the fire broke out, a report from the Bureau of Fire Protection said. The ten, all patients, died from burns and suffocation in their beds after a power outage cut off oxygen supplies to several who were hooked up to respirators. Twelve more were believed trapped in the intensive care ward, the report said. Hospital staff evacuated scores of patients from the three-storey Lung Centre of the Philippines, some using cigarette lighters to find their way through the darkness. "We saw more or less 12 bodies in the ICU (intensive care unit). Some were charred beyond recognition," investigator Samuel Tadeo told reporters as firemen, hampered by low water supply because of the dry spell linked to the El Nino weather pattern, battled the flames at the three-storey building. Only one badly burned body had been retrieved from the ICU eight hours after the fire started. The fire spread to an adjacent hospital for kidney patients, gutting a portion of that hospital and forcing the more than 100 patients there also to evacuate. One saved himself by jumping through a window.

Firemen said they had not recovered all the bodies in the ICU of the Lung Centre because the intense heat was preventing them from getting in. Hospital officials said 12 to 14 people were there when the fire broke out. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Darkness immediately engulfed the centre after the fire started and a nurse said she and the other staff could not save all of the patients because there were not enough wheelchairs. A Reuters photographer at the scene said he saw at least eight bodies wrapped in sheets outside the hospital grounds. The hospital had about 175 patients when the fire started at around 0200 (1800, GMT).