Accidents Happen When We Try to Run before We Can Walk

Huangdao is a small district of Qingdao on the western shores of Jiaozhou Bay, a few kilometers from the main urban area. Originally a small rural community, it was transformed in the 1970s when oil storage facilities – pipelines and storage tanks – were built to export oil from the Shengli field.

In 1989, a fatal fire started in the Huangdao storage area, and because the tanks were arranged in a row, the large fire raged for several days. The damage was devastating, with nearly the entire port destroyed.