For the third time in two days extinguished flames reignite and spread in the plant: sparked by the soaring temperature inside the oil storage tanks. The authorities impose a safety zone with a radius of five kilometers, local residents awakened by the smell and light: "It was like the sky was on fire".

Beijing (AsiaNews) - Authorities in the southern Fujian province have ordered the evacuation of 14 thousand inhabitants of Gulei area ​​, after the Zhanzhou paraxylene factory caught fire for the third time in two days.

Rescue teams had declared the fire extinguished on April 7, but the flames broke out again overnight yesterday; after a second operation, in which 19 people were injured, again the fire was declared extinguished. Overnight, however, the blaze reignited spreading to the fourth oil storage site.

Experts said the blaze restarted because the temperature of the liquid in the three oil tanks that had caught fire was higher than their ignition point, and that the liquid began burning again once the layer of foam sprayed on it had been consumed. To try to prevent further deaths, the government proclaimed a "evacuation zone" with a radius of five kilometers.

A resident told the South China Morning Post that he was awakened by the smell and by the light of the flames: "The flames were very big and bright. They burned high in the air, I was afraid it might blow up, so I organised my family and workers to leave the place. " About 10 thousand residents are housed in Zhangpu county, others have moved to neighboring towns.

Paraxylene is one of the chemicals most feared by the population of China, which has stepped up protests to push the government to move production facilities. In fact the factory in question was supposed to be built in 2007 in Xiamen, also in Fujian, but a massive and prolonged demonstration convinced the authorities to rethink its location. They moved it to Zhangzhou, where a fire already broke out two years ago, without however causing any victims. According to the central government, such chemical factories "are completely safe."

There are doubts about the possible environmental impact of this new disaster. The authorities were quick to declare that "there is no harm to the environment or ecosystem", but experts - including the national director of Greenpeace – say it will take "at least six months" before determining what damage there has been  to nature and aquifers.

• CHINA Fujian
• fire chemical factory Paraxylene enviornemnt