Residents near a blown out chemical plant in China’s eastern Shandong province on Wednesday assessed the damage to their village and monitored the wind, fearful of toxic fallout from an explosion that killed at least five people a day earlier.
Black and grey smoke was still rising from the smoldering facility, as emergency services continued to tend to the site. Local officials have not yet released the results of air quality tests.
The blast happened just before noon on Tuesday at a plant operated by Shandong Youdao Chemical in the city of Gaomi, sending plumes of orange and black smoke into the sky and littering the roadside with debris for more than a kilometre.
Nineteen people were injured and six more remain missing, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Yu Qianming, a 69-year-old farmer, showed Reuters roofing that had fallen in and windows that had shattered, but said nobody in his home had suffered any injuries.
Yu said he and his wife felt safe in their home as long as the wind continued to blow north, but added they had moved their grandchild elsewhere as a precaution.
Shandong Youdao Chemical was established in August 2019 in the Gaomi Renhe chemical park, according to the company’s website.
The plant develops and produces chemical components for use in pesticides and pharmaceuticals, employing more than 300 people on a site of more than 47 hectares
