68 killed in Jiangsu factory blast

[Robertt S]

Firefighters arrived at a factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu province [/color]after an explosion on August 2, 2014. (Photo / Xinhua)


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NANJING - Police in east China's Jiangsu province have detained five people after an explosion killed 68 people and injured 187 others on Saturday morning, local authorities said.
Five managers at Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Products Co. Ltd have been placed under police custody, CCTV reported.
The blast happened at around 7:37 am inside a wheel hub polishing workshop owned by the company. Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Products is in Kunshan's economic and technological development zone, which is 70 kilometers away from Shanghai. Its website said the company has 450 employees and listed General Motors as a client.
There were 261 workers at the site when the explosion happened. Rescuers pulled out over 44 bodies at the site while 24 others died in hospitals.
Officials have said the explosion was a work safety accident, and the blast was probably caused by flames igniting dust inside the workshop.
Wang Yong, China's state councilor, was heading to the site on the requests of President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang as a representative of Beijing.


[/color]Victims gather outside the gate of a factory after an explosion in Kunshan, east China's Jiangsu province on August 2, 2014. (Photo / AFP)

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Photos circulated on social networking sites showed charred bodies of victims were placed on trucks or lying in front of the factory as plumes of black smoke billowed from factory. Other photos showed hospitals crowed with patients with burns.
Xinhua reporters at the scene said the blast left two large holes in the factory's wall, with large equipment and pieces of broken glass scattered around.
Local health authorities said most of the injured suffered burns to the body and in the respiratory system. Some of them have been transferred from Kunshan to nearby cities of Suzhou, Wuxi and Shanghai for treatment.
The Kunshan branch of the Red Cross Society of China has asked locals to donate blood.
Relatives of factory workers said the workshop is very dirty and full of dust. A worker was reportedly forced to quit due to the dust problem.
A man surnamed Cheng said he could not contact his wife who had been working in the factory. He said conditions were "the worst" in Kunshan's industrial development zone.
He said that in the dusty environment, the only protection workers were given was a mask and gloves while air filtering equipment is basically useless.
According to Cheng, workers earned 5,000 yuan ($830) per month, but the staff turnover rate is high due to the heavy workload. The factory has 20 to 30 new employees every day and some are not trained at all.
Seven doctors and nurses specializing in burn treatment at Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital have arrived at Kunshan to aid local hospitals now "crowded with injured patients," according to the hospital.
The site has been cleared and further investigation is underway.


http://www.chinadailyasia.com/nation/2014-08/02/content_15154118.html
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[JohnB]

http://www.ibtimes.com/zhongrong-metal-parts-factory-explosion-how-does-it-affect-general-motors-china-1648224
good article, but it kinda glosses over G.M.'s responsibility in the dust explosion.
Most people do not realize that 'product quality assurance' also extends to the facility and the people that work there. When
contracts are awarded, it is most likely someone from G.M. visited the facility. There are also periodic visits to ensure compliance
to their mutual contractual agreements. If things are as sloppy as it appears, then I would imagine G.M. played a considerable
part as this disaster developed.

The use of multi tiered suppliers is something of a dumbed down process of cost cutting production.
G.M. should have red flagged this facility at the get go. This shit should not have happened.   
I guess life is cheap in China.

[CypherDragon]

I guess life is cheap in China.

Sadly that's true in more than just China...

[shaun]

Having been a fire fighter I know that dust is the number one culprit for fires starting in mills/factories.  There are many mills and manufacturing facilities in Georgia and as a fire fighter I had to tour most of factories and mills in the areas where I lived it.  Whether it is a cloth mill which is the most volatile or a metal working factory all companies in America have to by law remain clean.  Dust fires spread faster than you can put them out.  It can be more like a flash fire.  Mix that with oils and solvents and your have a recipe for disaster much like this one.  They mentioned dust but I imagine that was the explosions that killed and charred bodies was a result of chemicals exploding from the dust fire.

I've seen the results of a dust fire in a cotton mill.  It isn't a pretty sight.

Since the Chinese people are very good at squeezing every penny possible of every dollar they earn I suppose that they are learning an unfortunate but valuable lesson in human life and product production.  The cost the company will endure from this point will be far greater than the money they saved by not keeping them clean.  The human loss is absolutely tragic and you simply can't replace a human life lost.

I've been to a couple of mills in China and they were clean.  I was at one metal fabrication factory and couldn't wait to get out of there.  The dust was horrible.  I explained my concerns to my brother in law and he said this would never change.  Sad really.

[maxx]

Shaun I understand what your saying and I have seen some of the fires you are talking about. My question is isn't a silage fire or grain fire about the worst. I grew up around farms and ranches. And about every year you would here about some silo catching fire. Or somebodies hay barn burning to the ground.

I was working for a company in Colorado Springs Colorado. A employee lost control of a heat treat furnace one mourning. The fire Blew the four ton door 20 yards and shot flame through the roof.24 hours latter they were still repairing the furnace. And patching the hole in the roof. the Building had 18 foot roof line.

[Robertt S]

I am sure you remember this event Shaun.  http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23059948/ns/us_news-life/t/found-dead-ga-sugar-refinery-blast/#.U-GDKmNHKvk

[shaun]

Yes Robert I do remember that one.  We learned about in firefighter classes.

Yes Maxx those fires are bad.  But what makes a dust fire so bad is that happens so quick that you don't have time to react to it.  It flashed just like a flash fire and the heat is intense just like a flash fire but it happens in mere seconds rather than minutes.  A real flash fire is an oxygen deprived area that has been smoldering for a long while and then suddenly oxygen is introduced and flashed.  That is why you see in movies firefighters touching doors to see if they are hot before entering.

The most common grain fire that happens when the grain is still active (moist).  It can store heat for days that you never see possibly even smolder some without ever catching fire, but let a little grain dust catch fire and it is all over, or let wind fan it into a flame and it is over, or someone ignites it will a fuse like a cigarette and it is over.  But this process takes a while to happen.

The de-composition process produces heat and if it isn't regulated correctly it will catch fire.

Dust fires happen instantly with some kind of a spark.  As I would suspect with this one in China.  Someone threw a cigarette butt into a dusty area and a chain reaction happened so quickly that the first people to see it were dead before they could react.  The explosions more than likely were flammable solvents that were or had been opened.  With the heat factor because of summer the vapors were hanging around and as soon as the fast burning dust fire hit Armageddon it the factory.

[Willy The Londoner]

The authorities have suspended work at more than 200 factories in the area doing similar work until the officials have checked each out.

Willy