Free Republic

By Jason Cato, Tom Fontaine and Timothy Puko Published: Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, 9:09 a.m. Updated 4 hours ago DUNKARD — The thunder of a natural gas well explosion on Tuesday morning in rural Greene County shook Charlie Grim awake, yanked John Kuis away from the television and rattled Michelle Hurley's home as she dressed for work. “It sounded like a jet engine was parked in my driveway,” said Kuis, 57, who scrambled outside to see fire and smoke rising above the tree line near his Dilliner home, about 70 miles south of Pittsburgh. The fire at the Chevron Corp....

Glancing at the ProMed site this morning,I noticed a report about the gas well explosion in China, which had,at time of publication,snuffed out at least 191 lives. I came across this rather amazing statistic about industrial accidents in China, which I have taken the liberty of quoting in full. "An average of more than 10,000 people a month died in work-related accidents from January to September of 2003." Still want to "buy Chinese" ???

Chinese officials say an accident at a natural gas field in southwest China has killed at least 191 people. The official Xinhua news agency says hundreds of others were injured by an explosion and the release of toxic fumes at the Chuandongbei gas field in Chongqing's Kaixian county. Authorities have not said what may have caused Tuesday's blast. Officials say a gas well burst without warning, releasing a high concentration of natural gas and sulfurated hydrogen at least 30 meters into the air. Hospitals in the area are filled with casualties. Authorities evacuated residents within five kilometers of the well....