China Gas Field Explosion Kills 191; 41,000 Flee

An explosion at a natural gas field in southwestern China killed at least 191 people and sent more than 41,000 residents fleeing as poisonous fumes engulfed entire villages, state media said today.

Industrial accidents are notorious in China, but the blast at the Chuandongbei gas field late Tuesday is believed to be one of the nation’s worst. The disaster, made public Thursday, left hundreds of people injured, many suffering from chemical burns and the effects of the poisonous fumes.

Witnesses reported hearing a huge explosion about 10 minutes after a black column of highly concentrated sulphurated hydrogen shot about 100 feet into the air; some people described it as a hissing column of mud gushing into the sky. Then a fireball lighted up the entire mountainside. The sky filled with black clouds that locals said smelled like rotten duck eggs.

Liao Yong, a villager who lives nearby, told the Chongqing Morning Post that he was watching in shock when some workers from the gas field emerged from the darkness yelling for people to run for their lives. Liao packed his family into his farm truck and picked up fleeing neighbors on the way.

They drove as far as they could, he said, stopping to see if they had gone far enough. But foul-smelling fumes continued to follow them, until Liao got so disoriented he drove the truck into a stream. When he and the other occupants crawled out from the icy water, they felt clear-headed enough to continue on foot, not daring to look back again.

They were the lucky ones. Back in the village where most people had been sleeping, signs of death were everywhere. According to one newspaper account, corpses of dogs and cats littered the road. Pigs lay dead in their sties, their nostrils filled with white foam. On the main road out of the village, a mother died with her young son in her arms.

Wang Duanping, the deputy governor of Kaixian county, where the gas field is located, told state-run CCTV that the death toll was so high because the accident happened late at night when most people were asleep and the poisonous fumes spread quickly. The population of the area is very concentrated and the gas field lacked adequate rescue equipment to get people out, Wang said.

The cause of the accident remained unclear. State media said a drilling mishap may have cracked open a gas well, but no further details were given. Gas field officials said they hoped to bring the situation under control by late today.

To stop the release of lethal gas, workers have been dumping tons of mud to plug the well and lighting fires to stop the fumes from spreading.

The central government has dispatched rescue workers, including military personnel and high-level officials, to the area to “go all out to rescue the victims and prevent poisonous gas from spreading farther,” according to the New China News Agency.

Residents from 28 villages were evacuated to 15 relocation centers. Local hotels have been ordered to house and feed the victims.

The gas field is in a remote area near the town of Gaoqiao, about 210 miles northeast of Chongqing. Hospitals were overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. The biggest hospital in Kaixian county was treating 200 to 300 seriously injured victims. Other area medical facilities were reportedly severely understaffed. Some accounts said as many as 4,000 people rushed to hospitals seeking assistance related to exposure to poisonous fumes.

China’s record for workplace safety is abysmal. More than 720,000 industrial accidents caused more than 96,000 deaths in the first nine months of the year across the country, according to official figures.