 It is the early hours of the 1st of August 2014, and firefighters are battling with multiple fires in a district of Gaosung, Taiwan. Multiple explosions have ravaged an area roughly one square mile in size. And with several roads unusable and debris all over the place, the firefighters have their work cut out for them. The area looks like someone has just dug up the entire road. The explosions had reportedly come from the extensive storm drain trench network below. Today we're looking at the 2014 Gaosung disaster. My name is John, and welcome to Plainly Difficult. This is the LCY Petrol Chemical Corpse Gaosung site, located here on a map. It needs propane, as such it's fed via a series of underground pipes. One such will be the focus of this video, and it was a 4 inch pipe devoted to transporting liquid propane. I should say though that there were two other lines that ran in a similar route, which were the diameters of 6 and 8 inches respectively. It was devised in 1986, and planned to run roughly 1 meter or 3 feet below the surface. Planning for the pipeline took quite a bit of care to avoid the city's main centre. As such it took a bit of a roundabout way. The network was designed and constructed by the Government Owned CPC Corporation. The total network would have a length of 25km and construction would begin in 1991, a year after its approval. The lines came into operation in 1994, and this marked the start of the pipeline inspection schedule, which was to not inspect the pipelines at all, although built by CPC, ownership was transferred to LCY upon its commencement of operations. Have the lines were devised to be sited away from built-up areas, over the years expansion of the city's residential and commercial areas became more populated. And there the pipes would lay, not causing any issues to anyone, for the best part of 25 years, until, well we know where this is going to go in 2014, a white fog. It is the evening of the 31st of July 2014, and an odd white small cloud of fog has emerged from a manhole cover on a junction near Kaesong, 3rd Road and Ersheng, 1st Road. Firefighters were called and quickly attended the site, spraying down the fog water, and this was around 9pm in the evening. Calls from the crews commander went to the Environmental Instance Specialist team, and requested specialist assistants to figure out what on earth the fog was. At 20 past 10 in the evening, a small explosion rang out about a kilometer away from the original manhole cover. Not long after, the EPA specialist team reached the original site, and began taking measurements. Meanwhile, whilst all this was unfolding, in the LCY control room, an operator noticed a drop in propane flow rate. They contacted the operator at the China General Terminal Distribution Corporation. It was supplying the propane. The manager still, the flow rate of the CGTD company's pumps had increased, and they began to draw a lot more current, electrical current than normal, from 130 amps to 180. In response, the CGTD operator shut off the pump and closed the valves. The pressure of the line dropped off. By 10pm, an LCY manager ordered the pumps be restarted, and the valves opened. The operator resumed pumping, propane, to the LCY site. Flow rates were not mirroring each other between the LCY intake and the CGTD outtake. This was hinting that there was a leak. The LCY site received a far lower flow rate than what was being pumped by the CGTD. Less than half, in fact. Both companies decided that they would investigate later on, maybe on the next shift. A nearby trench for a light rail construction site, a few minutes later, started blowing out some white smoke at the original fog site. The situation was becoming rather bizarre. Specialists entered the construction site in the search for some of the smoke. This was around 10-11 in the evening, and samples were taken off for analysis. But the wait for the results would take a bit too long. The foreman for the next shift at the CGTD site, had to travel through the Kaisun 3rd Road area. As he drove by, he smelt a strong odor of propane. This was around 20 past 11 in the evening. 10 minutes later, when he got to work, he expressed his concerns, well his explosive concerns, with the CGTD operator, and ordered a shutdown of the pumps. However, this would be too late. Just before midnight, explosions rang out from the Yeesin Road, Ershin Road, Sandoor Road, and Guangha Road. Timek from the road was blown into the air, taking with it cars, motorbikes, and even people. Flames reached several stories high. Some of the firetrucks deployed to the earlier mystery smoke were blown into the newly formed trench, where the roads were just a few minutes still intact earlier. About 6km of road length was damaged, but that wasn't all. The whole area's electricity shut down, plunging the affected parts of the city into darkness. Emergency workers from all over the region were dispatched to try and extinguish the now Inferno bellowing around. After a few hours of battling the flames, the Taiwanese army was called in to help. Over 300 people were transported for medical attention, ranging from minor to serious injuries. In the immediate aftermath, some of the dead were identified, but there were quite a few missing people. Just to say, the death toll would rise. At least 5 explosions had occurred, cutting off gas to 23,600 households, electricity to 12,000 households, and water to around 8,000 households. The fire would continue into the morning. By now, 25 deaths have been identified. Aftermath Once the fires had been put out, rescue workers had another problem. Around 260 tons of Trap Probe pain was still below the ground. This would be a potential bomb. It would have to be vented and nitrogen gas would then be pumped into the system to purge out all of flammable propane. Over the coming days, more and more rescue workers would come in to assist and gradually the death toll would rise, eventually up to as high as at least 32. Some bodies were found on building roofs, showing the immense power behind the explosions. Many households would be displaced in the area, but those who could return did to their houses and businesses. But of course the question in everyone's mind was how did such a large area just explode out of the blue? Well that's where an investigation would come into play. During the investigation, the timeline of events leading up to the explosion would come to light. A raid on LCY and CGTD offices would retrieve documents on the two company's operations when it came to propane. CPC would also come under scrutiny, being the builder of the pipelines and all. However, the company responded with the fact that although they made it, they weren't contracted to maintain it. An ownership had to transfer to LCY after all. The behaviour of the pipeline before the explosion pointed towards some kind of breach in the pipe, especially where descending readings were higher than the receiving readings. Investigators found that the source of the leak to be from the storm drain, near Eisheng Road first, and the Gaojiang Third Road. This was where the fire had been most ferocious after all. Upon closer inspection, the three supply lines were found running over the damp and humid storm drain. The four inch line had a break a few inches across. Around the edges of the break, rust could be seen. Clearly, this was the source of the disaster. The pipes were uncovered, meaning years of moisture had worked its way into the pipeline's surface, eventually weakening it into it couldn't take the pressure anymore. The propane after breaching the pipeline spread out under the extensive storm drain network. This was how so much air was blown up, but what of the spark? Well, it turned out that a fire truck was parked over the leak area with its engine running. This was to supply water to the firefighters who were dousing the mystery white cloud with water. Eventually, the vapours made its way out of the storm drain and reached the vehicle's hot engine. And this was enough to ignite the vapours. Now the government, LCY CPC and CGTD will come under scrutiny from residents, mainly in the slowness of the reaction to the reports of the leak and poor maintenance. Some government officials would actually end up resigning. And a number of staff would be indicted at court. During the reconstruction works, the local area would be hit again economically, with some businesses having to close down whilst the roads and buildings were repaired. The area would rebuild and go back to some sort of normalcy, although the disaster wouldn't be forgotten, creating a scar on the area's collective psyche. This is the Plain Lift Foot Production, all videos on the channel are creative commons, attribution, share, light, lighting. Plain Lift Foot videos are produced by me, John, in the currently cold corner of southern London, UK. I have YouTube members and Patreon members, so thank you very much for your financial support and thank you to the rest of you for tuning in every week to listen to me talk. I have a second YouTube channel, Instagram, X or Twitter, whatever you want to call it. And all that's left to say is thank you for watching and Mr Music, play us out please.