Tragedy in Dalian: The Courageous Work of Oil Spill Firefighters
Firefighters responding to the scene of the Oil spill in Dalian, China (Photo from Netease)
To Chinese firefighter Jiang Hui, his Darley fire truck was his darling. Jiang had been a driver with a $1 million fire truck since his unit purchased it three years ago, and he liked this American brand.
Jiang was among the earliest squads to reach the burning and smoky scene in Dalian. While shooting water and foam to the fire, the blazing crude oil quickly rushed near their feet. The tires of the fire truck caught fire. Jiang jumped into the truck and tried to move it, but the flame started to engulf the fire truck. Another firefighter ran to the truck’s front side, pulled Jiang out of the cabin and dragged him away.
The heat was too hot to bear. While some firefighters shot water canons towards the burning oil tanker, others had to shoot water towards the front line of firefighters to cool them down.
“Water, Water!”, “Foam!” were the shouts of the firefighters mixed with the sounds of continuous explosions and blazing noise of fireballs.
A Dalian TV cameraman, Lu Jianwei, captured a short conversation of a firefighter, later identified as Xu Zhiyou, talking to his wife over the cell phone. “Dear, I might not be back, treat mom well, treat our child well!” On the other side of the line, his wife must have asked why. “Don’t ask, no time, I will stop here.” Then he turned off the phone and rushed towards the fire.
The cameraman, Lu, as if suddenly woken up while filming, realized how deadly the whole thing could be, and he too made a call to his loved ones.
After pouring 13.3 million tons of fire extinguishing foam, the blaze was finally contained around 8:00 am on July 17th, 2010.
The Chinese government initially estimated that 1,500 tons (400,000 gallons) of crude oil leaked into the Yellow Sea. This figure was later overshadowed by Greenpeace’s estimation of 60,000 tons of heavy crude oil that has been spilled into the sea.
Firefighter Zhang Liang's final moment (photo from Netease)
Zhang Liang, a 25-year-old firefighter, thought he might have a good rest after the sleepless night. But he could not sleep as his task was to ensure that floating boat pumps were supplying sea water to the land for follow-up operations.
Zhang is a newly married man but not new to being the first to respond to the scene of a disaster. In 2008, he also travelled to Sichuan to join an earthquake rescue mission.
This new task proved to be a bit challenging. The boat pump was not designed to move through the thick oil. Every now and then, Zhang needed to jump into the water to remove the debris and the thick oil that stuck the pump. When the tide was low, Zhang and his mate decided to push the floating boat pump to deeper water to get more water access. He slipped and the crude oil started to soak and cover him as if he was in a marsh.
His colleague tried to hold his head up but Zhang kept sinking. When his colleague tried to grasp Zhang’s arm as he fell, the oil-covered arm was too slippery to hold onto.
Zhang became the first fatal victim of the Dalian oil accident. As the firefighters and oil collectors have little protective gear, the toxic hazards they have been exposed to mean Zhang would not be the last casualty.
Jiang Hui is still grieving for the loss of his Darley fire truck which burned to the ground and was reduced to an iron framework. The loss of Zhang Liang was simply too grievous for his families to bear.
Tags: China, Dalian oil spill, Energy, Marine, oil spill, Water
