Residents of Dafang, Gulou district were abruptly woken this morning by a factory boiler blast that sent a shock wave through many neighbouring residential complexes reportedly burying one person and injuring a number of others.
The boiler blast appeared to have come from the Kangda Mother and Child Center; the blast caused large flames, which surrounded nearby areas. Adjacent buildings, walls and sheds have collapsed; dozens of e-bikes are buried under rubble and many windows have been smashed in.
Police, ambulance and firefighters all appear to have reacted quickly to the accident and have secured the area, which is now under investigation as to what caused the blast.
The Nanjinger correspondent, Francesca Lieper, who lives very close to the scene was also awoken by the blast, “I was woken by an enormous bang and initially it sounded like a huge clap of thunder right on top of the building. I was waiting for the rain to follow but it didn’t. When I got out of bed and looked out the window there was great big plume of black smoke. The old people practicing Tai Chi outside my flat didn’t seem too phased by it until they cleared off when the smoke blew over”.
“There’s a hospital just behind where I live and for about half an hour there were ambulances going back and forth, when I left my house to go to work I went in search of it, although I didn’t expect it to be just on the other side of my xiaoqu [complex]… I asked one policeman what happened and he said, “没什么，没什么” [it’s nothing, it’s nothing], so I kept asking until he told me there had been an explosion. I asked what it was and he said a boiler exploded.”
“I saw some destroyed walls and bikes and mopeds that were squashed under rubble…makes me a bit worried about the safety standards of these old buildings…” she said.
No fatalities have been reported at the time of writing this article.
