Blast rocks controversial Chinese chemical plant

Nineteen people were injured in an explosion at a controversial plant that produces the toxic chemical paraxylene in the eastern Chinese city of Zhangzhou, as hundreds of firefighters responded to the blast — the second at the site in two years — officials said Tuesday.

Citing investigators, the Xinhua news agency reported the blast was caused by an oil leak, which caught fire and set off explosions at three nearby oil tanks at the Goure PX Plant in Fujian province on Monday evening.  

Some 829 firefighters battled the blaze, Xinhua reported. Witnesses reported feeling a tremor as far as 30 miles away, the news agency added, before local residents were evacuated and the fire was contained.

Concerns over the safety of plants that make paraxylene (PX), a chemical used for producing plastic bottles and polyester clothing, have prompted several protests in China in recent years. Exposure to the flammable chemical can cause eye, nose and throat irritation.

The South China Morning Post reported that environmental officials in the province and city said there were no signs of contamination as a result of the explosion. However, environmental advocates said it could take a long as six months to know the extent of the damage.

"Petrochemical projects in China are usually huge, so whenever there is an accident, the damage can be severe," Ma Tianjie, program director at Greenpeace in Beijing, told the Post. 

The Zhangzhou PX plant, where Monday’s explosion occurred, was originally slated to be built in the nearby coastal city of Xiamen, but was moved to its present site after thousands protested in 2007.

In March of last year, thousands of demonstrators also took to the streets of Maoming, in the southern province of Guangdong, for days of demonstrations against another PX plant.

Discussion of Monday's explosion also dominated China's popular online social networks, with many users citing the incident as vindication of protesters' fears.

"Do you remember what we were worried about at the time?" wrote a user on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter equivalent, referring to similar protests in the northeastern city of Dalian in 2011 in which tens of thousands protested. "What we worried about is now the reality in Zhangzhou."

One user wrote: "Only when the city officials and their families live near a PX plant will their assurances be convincing." Another said: "They should build a PX plant in Beijing." 

Al Jazeera and wire services