【Accident Information】On September 19, 2016, an accident involving a leak of dichloroethane occurred in Urumqi, Xinjiang, from a tank truck

Thread Content

At 2:24 on September 19, the Urumqi 119 command center received a report that a tank truck had leaked near the Hongda Gas Station at the Dabancheng interchange on the Tuvu-Da Highway. The command center immediately dispatched 2 fire trucks and 10 firefighters from the Hotan Street Fire Brigade to the scene to handle the situation. At 3:50, firefighters arrived at the accident scene. According to on-site investigations, the leaking tank truck was carrying 29 tons of liquid dichloroethane, and a leak occurred at the weld at the bottom of the tank; the amount of leakage was significant. A gas station is located less than 300 meters away, and any secondary disasters could have catastrophic consequences. Moreover, dichloroethane is insoluble in water, flammable, and can rapidly vaporize into a gaseous state in the event of a leak; this gas is denser than air. After carefully observing the surrounding area, the firefighters decided to use water guns to direct the leakage toward open, low-lying areas downwind, in order to speed up its evaporation. The security team is responsible for securing the site, eliminating sources of fire, and preventing flash fires. After nearly 2 hours of efforts, most of the liquid in the tank had been drained. Firefighters set up water guns at the tank’s loading port to flush out any remaining liquid, and they diluted and covered the area once more. Once safety was ensured, the site was handed over to the safety supervision department. At present, the cause of the accident and the extent of the damage are under further investigation.