Investigation report reveals cause behind deadly explosion

The explosion that ripped through a barbecue restaurant in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia Hui autonomous region and left 31 dead on June 21 last year was caused by the misuse of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders that were illegally manufactured and distributed, according to the investigation report on the accident.

Dereliction of duties from government bodies and poor management in gas safety also contributed to the fatal explosion that also caused seven injuries and shocked the public, said the report published on Saturday.

Meanwhile, 15 people were put under investigation for the suspected crime of negligently causing a serious accident and the arrests of 11 of them have been approved. Also, 66 public servants have been held accountable by supervision authorities, Xinhua reported on Saturday.

Also, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China has also launched probes into Chen Chunping, vice-chairman of Ningxia and Zhao Xuhui, Party chief of Yinchuan for their dereliction of duties during the accident. It has decided to give Chen a warning and Zhao a severe warning as disciplinary punishments.

The explosion occurred at around 8:40 pm at Fuyang Barbecue Restaurant on a busy street in Xingqing district of Yinchuan.

According to the investigation headed by the State Council, the distributor of the LGP cylinders delivered the cylinder with two valves, which allows it to be used for both liquid and gaseous fuels, but according to safety regulations, the restaurant is only qualified for using LGP cylinders with only the valve for gaseous fuel. And it's the direct cause of the accident.

The restaurant employees then violated safety management regulations and mistakenly connected the gas regulator to the liquid valve the night before the accident.

When the employees noticed the leak on the day of the accident, they decided to repair it by themselves. But they accidentally opened the valve wider, which caused a large amount of gas to escape. The gas then mixed with air and reached a flammable concentration, and it ignited when it came into contact with a fire in the kitchen, the report said.

The head of the investigation team said that instead of reporting the leak and wait for professional assistance, they tried to fix the problem by themselves four times. "After the third attempt, they called the LGP cylinder provider that asked them to stop and wait for help, but they didn't listen."

The report added that the staircase to the second floor of the restaurant was the only point of exit for people on the second floor and the windows on the second floor were all barred. After the staircase was damaged by the explosion, people upstairs were trapped, causing more casualties.

The head of investigation team added that, when the fire broke out, the manager of the restaurant asked people to call the police but failed to inform the guests at the restaurants so valuable time to escape has been wasted.

"It's clear that authorities in Ningxia failed to effectively regulate the production and use of LGP cylinders, which has been required by the Work Safety Committee of the State Council and other authorities since 2020," he said.

Also, the producer of the LGP cylinders was found to have obtained their license with fake documents. And the distributor of the cylinders hasn't obtained the license to handle LGP products and continued to deliver the wrong cylinders to Fuyang restaurant when it knows it's against the regulations, the head of investigation team said.