On 31 July 2014, a series of gas explosions occurred in the Cianjhen and Lingya districts of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, following reports of gas leaks earlier that night. Thirty-two people were killed and 321 people were injured.
Event
The explosions Eyewitnesses reported a smell of gas and white smoke coming out of manholes near Kaisyuan 3rd Road and Ersheng 1st Road in Cianjhen District on 31 July 2014 at 20:46, over three hours prior to the incident. The explosions occurred later at 23:57 on Yisin Road, Ersheng Road, Sanduo Road and Guanghua Road.
Witnesses reported seeing fireballs soaring into the sky and flames reaching 15 stories high. The blasts ripped up roads, trapped and overturned cars and firetrucks, and caused a blackout to the electrical grid. About 6 km of road length were damaged. The explosions reportedly blew cars and motorcycles high up in the air; some vehicles and victims were found at the rooftops of buildings three or four stories high. One street had been split along its length, swallowing fire trucks and other vehicles.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah stated that there had been at least five blasts around the city. The blasts cut gas supplies to 23,600 households, electricity to 12,000 households, and water to 8,000 households.
Firefighters from Kaohsiung City, Chiayi City, Pingtung County, Tainan City and Taitung County rushed to the scene to extinguish the fires and help the rescue efforts. Some of the firefighters also sprayed water on the roads in the hope to reduce the ground temperature. During the incident, four firefighters died, with two of them going missing; the explosions also injured 22 other emergency workers. The Taiwanese army was also dispatched and arrived at the site within two hours after the initial explosion.
Emergency rooms in hospitals around Kaohsiung were packed with casualties that night, with most of them having suffered cuts and burns. Some of the injured people had to be carried to hospitals by trucks due to the lack of ambulances. All of the casualties were sent to more than 20 hospitals around the city, including Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Yuan's General Hospital, Armed Forces General Hospital, and Kaohsiung Municipal United Hospitals.
Rescue efforts
By the following morning, most of the fires had been fully extinguished or had burnt out by themselves, but a few remained. Paramedics, search and rescue dogs and helicopters swept the area looking for survivors. Heavy construction equipment was brought to the blast site to begin removing debris from the street. Schools and offices were closed on that day and residents were asked to leave their houses to smooth out the search and rescue operations. By afternoon, hundreds of people who fled the explosion scenes had returned home after houses around the explosion areas had been declared safe by the city spokesman. They confirmed that no more explosions could happen and that all of the fire had been put out. Traffic restrictions were put in place on Sanduo, Guanghua, Yixin, and Kaisyuan Roads. Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau also closed the northbound exit from Sun Yat-sen Freeway to Sanduo Road. However, Kaohsiung MRT and buses were not affected by the search and rescue works.
To help the city in the rescue efforts, at 22:30 on Friday night the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) shut down their four sets of generators fed with liquid natural gas, even though none of their pipelines had been damaged during the explosions. The shutdown lowered Taiwan's total electricity output by 1,100 MW, or about 2.7% of the total capacity. The decision to stop the supply was reached after a discussion between the Kaohsiung City Government and the oil refinery CPC Corporation, so that road repair and other disaster relief work could proceed without interruption. With their total generation expected to reach 36,970 MW in the peak hours of the coming week, Taipower has an excess capacity of 3,170 MW and thus can still meet the local energy demand in Kaohsiung. As a precaution, China Petrochemical Development Co., which also operates in Kaohsiung, reduced the gas pressure in its propene pipelines.
On Sunday, another 1,885 servicemen were deployed for the search and rescue operation at the explosion sites, bringing the total servicemen deployed during the incident to 5,567 people. Included among the servicemen were the chemical detection troops who continued to monitor any leaking gas. Equipment such as 22 ambulances, three chemical-detection vehicles, 13 excavators, 26 life detecting monitors, and other equipment were also being used in the rescue efforts. The rescue works attracted many passerby to watch, wander, or even for an "adventure date" in conjunction with Chinese Valentine's Day, a move considered disrespectful for the dead. The police had to ask them to leave and ask the public to stay away from the areas where the explosions occurred, citing the fragility of the ground or the ruined buildings around.
Immediate aftermath The remaining 260 tons of propene inside the damaged pipes was vented out completely by Monday from both of their input and output points. Nitrogen gas was put into pipes ensuring all propene had been removed, a move which had been done earlier by the CPC. The Environmental Protection Administration also had dispatched personnel to Kaohsiung to assist local government in air pollution monitoring.
On 5 August, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutor's Office issued the death certificates of two missing firefighters who had fought the fires caused by the gas explosions, despite their bodies having yet to be found. The prosecutors said that rescuers could not find the bodies and suspected that they might have been vaporized from the explosions.
On 8 August, another gas leak was reported in Cianjhen District shortly before 7:50 a.m causing widespread panic among residents. People who lived within 150 meters radius of Kaisyuan 3rd Road were evacuated the city police department to Kaohsiung Municipal Guanghua Junior High School and Le Chyuan Elementary School, raising concern among residents over their safety. Authorities tried to pin down the source of the gas and they dispatched personnel to the intersection of Yisin and Kaisyuan Roads. The gas concentration level reading peaked at 5,000 ppm at around 11 a.m which was mostly methane. However, by 14:30 the concentration level finally dropped below 10 ppm. Early measurements indicated that at least four gases leaked were methane, propene, ethylene and butane.
On 9 August, the Kaohsiung City Government ordered LCY to halt all of operations until its plan to improve pipeline safety had been reviewed by the government. Should LCY refuse to do so, the government would notify the Taipower and Taiwan Water Corporation to stop providing the company with electricity and water respectively.
Investigation
The Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch, acting as the Director of the Central Emergency Operation Center, suspected that the explosions were caused by a propene leak, and the firefighters could not extinguish the fires with water. Emergency workers had to wait until the gas had burnt away after the supply was shut down. It is suspected that the affected pipelines were those used for gas delivery to the petrochemical factory LCY Chemical Corp. (LCY; ).
The affected pipelines were designed and constructed by the government-owned CPC Corporation. However, CPC said that the pipeline system did not show any sign of problems before the explosion. The gas pipelines were approved in 1990 by Vice President Wu Den-yih, who served as mayor of Kaohsiung from 1990 to 1998, and the construction was completed in 1994. The pipelines had not been properly inspected for 24 years.
The Kaohsiung City Government found out that a pipeline delivering propene to Ren Da Industrial Park was found to encounter abnormal pressure between 20:40 and 21:00 the night the gas leak was discovered.
Pressure in the LCY piping system used to transport propene from one of its suppliers began to show abnormality starting 20:00 Thursday night and 3.77 tons of propene leaked between 20:00 and 21:00 The company did not shut down the pipe until 23:40, 16 minutes before the first gas explosion occurred. The concentration of the propene at the explosion site was abnormally high at 13,000 ppm. In a press conference on Friday, LCY CEO said that the company is fully cooperating with the authorities in the investigation and the company will bear the responsibility if found guilty.
During a press conference on Sunday at the Taiwan Stock Exchange in Taipei, LCY said that it was the responsibility of CPC to design and check the gas pipes. CPC responded that the pipes belonged to LCY and CPC did not have any maintenance contract with them. LCY further explained that detecting pressure drops indicating gas leaks was the responsibility of the China General Terminal and Distribution Corporation (CGTD; ), who transport LCY's petrochemicals through the pipes. LCY claimed they first detected abnormalities when the propene supply completely ceased at 8:49 p.m and returned to normal half an hour later. At 22:35, they detected further problems, shutting down transporting immediately. According to Kaohsiung's top environment official, though, 3.77 metric tons of gas had leaked already between 20:00 and 21:00, and the pipe system was only shut down at 23:40 – just 16 minutes before the explosion.
On 5 August, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office (KDPO) retrieved documents and records related to propene transport after they raided LCY and CGTD offices a day before. Several employees were brought to the prosecutors office for questioning. To better investigate the causes of the explosion, KDPO also invited domestic metal and petrochemical experts to the blast areas to collect evidence. On 18 December, the CEO and five employees of LCY Chemical, three employees of China General Terminal and Distribution, and three employees of the Kaohsiung Public Works Bureau were indicted for their role in the incident. The indictment charges these three groups with negligence, due to their failure to inspect or maintain the pipeline.
Reactions
Domestic President Ma Ying-jeou ordered full rescue efforts to help the blast victims. During his visit to Kaohsiung on Saturday to visit injured patients in hospitals and view the explosion sites, President Ma vowed to fully investigate the cause of the incident and to review the underground piping networks, stressing the need for a more comprehensive design and efficient management.
During his inspection of the damage in Kaohsiung, Premier Jiang Yi-huah, ordered the Taiwanese national flag to be flown at half-mast for three days starting 5 August to commemorate the victims of the gas explosions and also the TransAsia Airways Flight 222 crash a week before in Penghu County.
Vice Premier Mao Chi-kuo said during the rescue and relief effort works that public utilities companies would work hard to resume power and water supplies within three to five days. Taiwan Power Company said that power supply to about 3,900 households in less-affected areas should resume in two days, while temporary overhead lines set up to supply the worst-hit areas were expected to allow electricity to resume in three days. Taiwan Water Corporation said that the city government agreed to temporary water pipelines to supply the affected areas within five days. However, there was no schedule set up to resume the gas supply for the affected areas.