on jan 23rd, the shenyang chemical co had an unexpected test of its earthquake response, when a 5.1-magnitude quake hit an area between the cities of shenyang and liaoyang, disrupting telecommunications and forcing some enterprises to suspend production.
but shenyang chemical’s great emergency response measures allowed them to keep their devices and facilities working.
when the quake struck around noon, many workers were having their lunch, but, thanks to their routine drills for coping with emergencies, they remained calm and didn’t panic. they immediately took steps to provide safe and stable operations but also to prevent accidents and further disasters.
some of the company’s executives immediately contacted production control to check on the conditions, and employees carefully followed the emergency plan and returned to their work while preparing to deal with the disaster’s aftermath.
production team leaders and on-duty team leaders at the chlor-alkali plant rushed to the chlorine compressor and electrolysis control room to monitor operations, while various emergency and rescue materials were quickly put in place. the polyvinylchloride plant immediately lowered the levels of the polyvinylchloride tanks with a capacity above 1,000 cubic meters to cut risks and the polymerization terminator was moved to the polymerization tank so that polymerization could be terminated in case of an emergency. at the same time, manual emergency operation tools were activated as well as manual and automatic systems that were used simultaneously to control the production process.
in the end, the earthquake did not lead to any disaster for the company, but provided an effective test of the ability and qualifications of shenyang chemical’s employees in dealing with a real emergency.