After the explosion and fire at around 3am, the factory announced a state of emergency to evacuate workers, but the situation was brought under control quickly as four fire engines took 10 minutes to douse the flames. The tanks in the area were sprayed with water for two hours to prevent further damage.

At 11am, Hemaraj announced that the situation had returned to normal, while PTT Phenol executive Pornsak Mongkoltrirat said his company and Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate officials had checked areas inside and outside the factory and found no unusual level of pollutants in the environment. They would later talk with nearby communities to explain what happened and follow up on any impacts.

Pornsak said a detailed probe of the incident would take three to five days.

PTT Phenol had a cumene leak in June 2008 resulting in some 100 injuries, an informed source reported.

PTT Global Chemical yesterday announced that the fire at its subsidiary PTT Phenol had no adverse impact on production machines and there was an insurance policy to cover the damages. As a precaution, however, the company suspended production.

The initial probe found that the fire started from a 13.1-metre-high, 7.5-metre-radius tank, but the flames were put out quickly and hence did not spread or cause any damage to the production line, PTTGC said.