At least 5 are dead and 19 injured after a chemical plant explodes in
China, authorities say
[May 28, 2025]
BEIJING (AP) — A huge explosion rocked a chemical plant in China ’s
eastern Shandong province around noon Tuesday, killing at least five
people and injuring 19, according to local emergency management
authorities. Another six people were missing.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.
The blast was powerful enough to knock out windows at a warehouse more
than two miles (three kilometers) away, according to a video shared by a
resident, who declined to give his name out of concern about
retaliation.
The resident said his home shook. As he went to the window, he saw a
column of smoke from the site more than seven kilometers (4.3 miles)
away.
Gaomi Youdao Chemical Co. is located in an industrial park in the city
of Weifang. It manufactures pesticides as well as chemicals for medical
use, and has more than 500 employees, according to corporate
registration records.
Local fire officials sent more than 230 personnel to the scene,
according to state broadcaster China Central Television.
A student at a school about 1,000 yards away from the plant told
state-run news site The Paper that he heard one explosion and saw
dirt-yellow smoke, tainted with redness, rising from the plant. He said
there was a funny smell, and all students were given a mask and told not
to remove it.
A staffer at the local environment bureau told The Paper that a team was
dispatched to the scene to monitor potential pollution but had yet to
report back.
The blast came less than two weeks after the National Ministry of
Emergency Management held a workshop on preventing and controlling risks
in the chemical industry, as Beijing urged officials at chemical
industrial parks to boost their capabilities in “managing hazardous
chemicals.”
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This photo provided on May 27, 2025, by a local resident who
declined to give his name out of concern for retaliation shows an
explosion at a chemical plant in China's eastern Shandong province.
(Anonymous via AP)
Last year, the chemical plant was cited for “safety risks” at least
twice, but in September it was praised by the Weifang Emergency
Management Bureau for relying on party members to effectively manage
workplace risks. Specifically, party members at Gaomi Youdao
identified more than 800 safety hazards in the first eight months of
2024 and rectified all of them, the bureau said.
Workplace safety has improved over the years in China but remains a
stubborn problem. The National Ministry of Emergency Management
recorded 21,800 incidents and 19,600 deaths in 2024.
A warehouse complex storing large amounts of hazardous chemicals
caught fire and exploded in Tianjin in 2015, leaving 173 dead or
missing.
In 2019, 78 people were killed in a blast at a chemical plant in
Yancheng in China’s eastern coastal province of Jiangsu.
——
AP video producer Olivia Zhang, researcher Shihuan Chen in Beijing
and writer Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this report.
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