FYI
Inferno rages at oil refinery in Ibaraki Pref.
Yomiuri Shimbun
A fire broke in a fuel-oil desulfurizer at a refinery operated by Kashima Oil Co. in Kamisumachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, at about 5 a.m. Wednesday.
Firefighters battled the fire with about 20 fire trucks throughout the morning but the fire was still burning as of 9 p.m.
No injuries were reported.
The refinery, which process 190,000 barrels of oil per day, is located among a number of chemical pants in the Kashima industrial area. However, the police and local fire department said there was no danger of the fire spreading to other facilities, or the refinery's own oil storage tanks.
The company stopped all operations at refinery soon after the fire broke out.
The refinery is computer-controlled and there were no employees working near the plant when the fire broke out. The blaze was reported to the fire department by a worker who heard an explosion.
The police believe the explosion occurred near a heating device in the desulfurizer.
A fire that broke out in the same kind of equipment at the refinery in March 1982 killed five people and injured three.
The refinery supplies fuel oil for thermal power plants operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. and oil products to local customers
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20040422wo24.htmFYI
Apr. 21, 2004 21:10
Fire chief warns of 'arson intifada'
By YAAKOV KATZ
Israel is facing a new wave of "arson terrorism" by Palestinians, Fire and Rescue Services Commissioner Shimon Romach said, after multiple, deliberately set fires destroyed dozens of dunams of land this week.
Several fires were set in the Ben-Shemen Forest in the Modi'in region and in the Nataf Forest near Jerusalem. According to Romach, the fires, which he said were started by Palestinian arsonists, caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
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"There is a clear connection between last night's fires and arson in the past, which indicates that we are in the midst of the return of the 'arson intifada' of 1988," Romach said. "The Palestinians are frustrated due to the construction of the West Bank security fence and they have therefore resorted to arson, which is an easy form of terrorism."
"The arson is not new to us," he said. "This is a continuation of the fires from the first intifada and unfortunately it is a phenomenon that repeats itself."
Four fires broke out in the Ben-Shemen Forest on Sunday afternoon, following clashes between Palestinians and security forces over the security fence near the village of Rantis. The Jewish National Fund said that 200 dunams (50 acres) were consumed in the fire.
"All you need to start a fire is one match," Romach said. "You take the match and a can of fuel and light it in the forest. It's an action that doesn't require planning, since an arsonist usually will not get caught."
JNF officials said that, between 2000 and 2003, some 37,000 dunams (9,250 acres) of woodland were destroyed in about 1,000 forest fires – a third of which were caused by arson.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1082518211406