Gas pipeline leakage preliminarily determined as main cause of explosion in Yanjiao

A gas pipeline leakage in transportation has been preliminarily determined to be the main cause of the explosion that killed seven people in Yanjiao on Wednesday, the head of the investigation team said on Thursday.

The location of the explosion was within a building complex containing a fried chicken shop, but further investigation of the specific shop still needs to be undertaken, said Liu Fulai,

the head of the investigation team, in an interview with media on Thursday afternoon. The gas leak occurred at a certain depth underground and the team is currently trying to detect its exact location, he said.

The explosion occurred in a building in the town of Yanjiao, Sanhe city in North China’s Hebei Province at 7:54 am Wednesday. The incident resulted in seven deaths and 27 injuries.

In the initial reports, the location of the explosion was believed to be a fried chicken shop. Ji Hongtu, head of the emergency management bureau of Sanhe city, clarified on Thursday that the fried chicken shop was not the actual location of the explosion, nor was it the location of the leak.

The explosion occurred at one of the four shops next to the fried chicken shop, Ji said during the interview. During the explosion, the signs of these four shops were blown away, so the initial official report used the fried chicken shop as a reference point.

Ji stated that the explosion was not directly related to improper operations by business owners.

“The gas pipeline was installed a long time ago in Yanjiao, and the underground pipeline network is quite complex. The old pipelines have been in use for over 20 years, with the deepest one buried 12 meters underground,” Ji said.

He said that investigating the incident is proving difficult, as it is hard to determine whether there was a single or multiple leaks.