14 punished over PetroChina plant fire in northeast China

Fourteen people have been punished for accountability in a chemical plant fire in Dalian, a port in northeast China's Liaoning Province, last August.

According to the investigation report released on Thursday, the fire that broke out on August 17, 2017 in a subsidiary of the state-owned PetroChina Company Limited in the coastal city was caused by a leak in a pump in a catalytic cracking unit capable of producing 1.4 million tons of heavy oil annually. The fire was put out within hours and there were no casualties.

Vulnerabilities in operation and safety management were also blamed as an indirect cause.

The general manager and the Party secretary of the subsidiary were given a demerit and an administrative warning, respectively. The other 12 employees of the company were dismissed, removed from their posts, given serious demerits to their records or given administrative warnings.