According to the announcement of the people's government of Lucheng District, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, about 21:50 on January 14, 2019, a fire broke out in Lucheng Tianyuan Renewable Resources Co., Ltd. After the fire broke out, enterprises immediately started emergency response. The main leaders of the Lucheng District Committee and the district government led the public security, environmental protection, security supervision and fire control departments to the scene for rescue and rescue, and the open fire was extinguished around 23:00. The fire was under control. After preliminary verification, 2 people died and the cause of the accident is under further investigation.
The national enterprise credit information publicity system shows that Lucheng Tianyuan Renewable Resources Co., Ltd. was established in 2014. Its business scope includes the collection, storage, utilization and disposal of nitrobenzene and aniline residues. (The scope and duration of license approval shall prevail for licensed projects). (Projects subject to approval according to law may not be operated until approved by relevant departments.)

Popular science time
In recent years, chemical fire accidents occur frequently throughout the country, causing great property losses and casualties, and bringing many adverse effects to the society. Chemical enterprises store, use or produce raw materials and finished products which are highly flammable, explosive, toxic and corrosive. Once an accident occurs, it not only threatens human life, but also pollutes the atmosphere and water and soil environment. The following four aspects are discussed about the difficulties, cause analysis, preventive measures and disposal methods of chemical fire accidents.
1. Difficulties in the Disposal of Chemical Fire Accidents

II. Reasons for Chemical Fire Accidents
(1) Variable physical and chemical properties of raw materials. The flammability, toxicity and flammability of raw materials in many chemical enterprises determine the frequent occurrence of fire and explosion and poisoning accidents. Once the staff fails to operate, it will lead to the explosion of pressure vessels, which will produce very strong shock waves and cause heavy losses.
(2) The production process is complex. Side reactions in production are in critical state (temperature, pressure, alarm), which is very easy to explode and burn. If not properly controlled, it will lead to fire.
(3) Insufficient maintenance of equipment. Medium corrosion, fluctuation of production process parameters and equipment fatigue caused by mechanical vibration of equipment in production process can easily lead to mechanical performance degradation of equipment. If not checked and maintained in time, accidents often occur.
(4) Illegal operations occur from time to time. Complex process flow, changeable process parameters, high degree of automation control, high operation requirements, operation errors, illegal operation procedures and other phenomena are the important causes of fire accidents.
Preventive Measures for Chemical Fire Accidents
(1) Implementing safety evaluation mechanism for projects. Chemical enterprises should implement safety and environmental protection evaluation in the early stage of project establishment. Site selection should take into account the surrounding environmental conditions, the location of flammable gas, steam and combustible dust plants, wind direction, safety distance, river conditions and other factors. As far as possible, poisonous and harmful media should be located on the edge of the city or in relatively safe areas, so as to reduce the degree of hazards after the accident.
(2) Implementing fire protection design codes for buildings. The production plant, production equipment, warehouse, tank farm and ancillary buildings of chemical enterprises should be designed according to the requirements of relevant national standards and production processes, taking full account of such factors as fire separation, ventilation, leakage prevention, explosion-proof and pressure relief, fire-fighting facilities, etc.
(3) Operating and implementing the procedure of examination, criticism and evaluation. Risk analysis should be carried out in the links of fire operation, in-house operation, temporary electricity operation, high-altitude operation, lifting operation, earth-breaking operation and high temperature operation. Measures should be formulated, safety protective equipment should be equipped, guardians should be arranged, and safety production behavior on site should be standardized.
(4) Personnel shall implement the articles of Association for education and training. Hazardous chemicals operators must undergo safety training of not less than 72 hours, strengthen the study of process, safety rules, technical rules and operating rules, and require special operators to be certified to work. Those who are not qualified for training are strictly prohibited to work. At the same time, emergency plans are formulated and emergency drills are carried out regularly to improve personnel's ability to deal with unexpected accidents.
4. Disposal of Chemical Fire Accidents
(1) Extinguishing solid chemical fires. Flammable solids have a low ignition point and can cause rapid and continuous reactions by heating, shock, friction or contact with oxidants, leading to combustion or explosion. When flammable solids are in fire, fire extinguishing agents and equipment such as water, sand, foam, carbon dioxide, dry powder and asbestos blanket can be used to extinguish fire. In addition, when powder solid ignites, it is not necessary to use fire extinguishing agent to strongly impact in order to avoid dust being dispersed and explosive mixture formed in the air to cause explosion. When flammable solids such as phosphorus compounds, nitro compounds and sulfur are ignited, toxic and irritating gases will be produced. Firefighters should stand in the upper wind to avoid poisoning.
(2) Extinguishing chemical fires with adverse reactions to water. The common characteristic of this kind of articles is that they can produce flammable gases through intense chemical reactions when they meet water, and at the same time, they emit heat, which can cause combustion and explosion. In case of water burning, fire is applied to dry sand, dry powder and so on. When water is extinguishing, water, acid, alkali extinguishing agent and foam extinguishing agent are strictly prohibited. In water burning materials, such as lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium, strontium, etc., because of their very active chemical properties, they can capture oxygen in carbon dioxide and cause chemical reactions, making the combustion more intense, so they can not be put out with carbon dioxide.
(3) Extinguishing spontaneous combustion chemical fires. Although this kind of article is not in contact with the open fire, it can oxidize in the air at a certain temperature to give off heat. As the accumulated heat does not disperse, it will cause combustion when it reaches its ignition point. When self-ignited articles start fire, besides triethylaluminium and aluminium-iron solvents, they can not be extinguished with water. Generally, a large amount of water can be used to extinguish fire. Also, sand, carbon dioxide and dry powder can be used to extinguish fire. Because triethylaluminium produces ethane when it meets water, the temperature of aluminium-iron solvents is very high, which can make water decompose to produce hydrogen, so water can not extingui
(4) Extinguishing toxic and corrosive chemical fire. Water and other fire extinguishing agents can be used to extinguish the fire of poisonous articles, but when cyanide, selenide and phosphide in poisonous articles are on fire, acid-base fire extinguishing agents can not be used to extinguish the fire, and only spray water or carbon dioxide can be used to extinguish the fire. When corrosive substances are caught fire, they can be saved by foggy water, dry sand, foam, dry powder and so on. Sulfuric acid,Personal protective measures should also be taken to extinguish fires of harmful and corrosive articles, and gas masks and masks should be used.
(Source: People's Government of Lucheng District, Changzhi City)