Firefighters ready to extinguish east China petrochemical plant fire

JINAN, July 16 -- Firefighting brigades from seven cities in east China's Shandong Province have been dispatched to a petrochemical plant engulfed by a fire that broke out on Thursday morning.

A total of 774 firefighters, 118 fire trucks, 4 remote water-supply systems and 224 tonnes of extinguishing foam have been prepared as of Thursday evening and ready to launch a final attack against the inferno.

The blaze broke out at around 7:40 a.m. as tanks containing liquefied hydrocarbon leaked at the plant in the city of Rizhao.

No casualties have been reported, according to firefighters, who are cooling and protecting surrounding storage tanks in the meantime.

According to the city's environmental protection bureau, environmental personnel monitoring air quality around the plant have found excessive content of harmful non-methane hydrocarbon in some places, but the density of the pollutant is dropping, the bureau said.

The plant processes of heavy oils with a planned oil consumption of 5 million tonnes per year.