Binjiang Police Affairs
Chapter 155 - 127: The Eel-Catching Battle

Chapter 155: Chapter 127: The Eel-Catching Battle

On the river’s surface, Captain Wang piloted the newly commissioned Binjiang Police 001 patrol boat, while Master Zhou drove the 002, carrying Old Zhang, Old Liu from the Bailong Port Police Station, Director Jin, Han Xiangning, Chen Zikun and other Water Police officers, using loudspeakers to drive away the crowd fishing for eel fry in the Bailong Port lock channel.

In the second-floor conference room of the Dunship, Xu Sanye was chairing the first meeting of responsible persons from various units along the river since the commissioning of the Dunship.

Since the day before yesterday, the battle for catching eel fry had intensified, gradually consuming the nearby waterways and anchorages.

Yesterday evening, patrolling with the large 001, and with a sweep of the radar, the display lit up with densely packed bright spots, a vast array of eel fry fishing boats spread out like stars in the sky.

Due to insufficient depth in the Yangtze River estuary, large ships had to wait for the tide to enter the port.

The eel fry also had the characteristic of entering the port with the tide, so every day at high tide, a "life-and-death race" would be staged, a dangerous scene of navigating ships and fry-catching boats competing for the way, causing continuous emergency calls from the Bailong Port Passenger Pier and the Bailong Port Lock Management Office.

However, Xu Sanye was not now studying the intensifying eel fry battle, but had invited Director Yu from the Bailong Port Passenger Pier to report on a fire accident that had occurred in the Hanwu upstream waters not long ago.

"The fire broke out at 1:30 a.m. on the second of January. The burning ship was Jiangcheng Oil Transport Company’s Yangtze 62008 push boat team, consisting of three barges loaded with over seven thousand two hundred tons of crude oil, departed from Yizhen in our Jiangnan Province on December 28, bound for the Changling Refinery in Nanhu Province upstream of the Yangtze River."

Director Yu of the Bailong Port Passenger Pier had specially brought a water area map and pointed: "The accident happened upstream of Hanwu, only eighty-one kilometers from Hanwu’s busiest Minsheng Road Pier, and not far from the Hanwu Yangtze River Bridge."

"The first to receive the distress call was the Yangtze River Ship Company, and according to the rules, the firefighting of a fire on water should be the responsibility of the water transport department. However, the Yangtze River Ship Company, which owns thousands of vessels and tens of billions in fixed assets, did not have a single firefighting boat!"

"The distress call was then directed from the Yangtze River Company to the Hanwu Port Authority, but the Port Authority only had one 800-horsepower tow-and-firefighting boat, which was under maintenance. The call was transferred to the Hanwu Petrochemical Plant, and to the Nanhu Changling Refinery, both sides expressing they would dispatch firefighting boats to the scene for rescue."

"At the same time, the call reached the Fire Brigade of the Hanwu City Public Security Bureau, which had also just received an emergency dispatch order from the city’s police bureau command center, and quickly gathered the fire brigades from both Yang Han and Duokou, carrying foam fire engines, hand-held pumps, and related equipment, and by the early morning, arrived at the river embankment at the scene of the accident."

"However, as the ship burned in the middle of the river, the fire engine’s foam guns had a range of only fifty to sixty meters, and they needed to use automobile ferries to get closer to the burning vessel. But where could they find automobile ferries, and the two fire trucks became two ducks unable to swim, heroes with no chance to exert their strength."

"But they did not want to just watch the ship burn nor watch helplessly as the burning oil ship uncontrollably drifted towards Hanwu, hence twenty-one officers and soldiers decided to abandon their vehicles for boats, moving the firefighting equipment onto an outboard cement boat, approaching the burning oil barge, using hand pumps to squirt water first to lower the barge temperature and delay the potential explosion."

"At the same time, led by the leadership of the Nanhan Public Security Bureau, they immediately sought firefighting foam and dry powder nearby to provide prompt support, planning to use foam for fire-extinguishing after finding it."

"The aground barge 63023 burned fiercely; oil flames gushing from the hold surrounded the vessel completely, occasionally leaping dozens of meters high, piercing the clouds, resembling volcanic eruptions, continuously gushing fire and smoke, and emitting rumbling roars, beyond rescue."

"They conducted reconnaissance on the drifting barge 63040 and found that the flames were burning only at the bow and not high. Even at the risk of their lives, they steered the cement boat closer to the oil barge, touched the hull by hand, and found that the vessel was not very hot."

"They decided to board and fight the fire; the officers went first, climbing onto the burning oil barge, leading the firefighters with water jets, sticking close to the deck, inch by inch, step by step, cautiously advancing."

Pouring cold water directly onto the flames can cause an explosion!

Director Qian from the gas station listened with trepidation, Xu Sanye’s forehead veins bulged, and he clenched his fists in silence.

A major fire broke out in Hanwu waters, prompting the Yangtze River comprehensive safety inspection for firefighting.

Scholar Yu was the chief of the Water Police Division, and next, he would need to inspect units such as the Binjiang Port Authority together with the Port Supervision Bureau. Before the inspection, he could not be ignorant of the accident, busy with making notes.

"The officers knew that pouring cold water directly onto the flames could cause a terrible explosion. As they approached the fire, an officer took the water gun from a firefighter and sprayed it in a fan shape, signaling the soldiers to back up... The water cannon extended, the position expanded, and the extinguishing work proceeded smoothly."

Director Yu glanced at the report from the Port Authority, took several deep breaths, and said gravely, "At 8:57 a.m., just as the firefighting officers and soldiers were advancing in triumph, a squeaking sound came from behind, and the deck under their feet began to tremble.

Sensing imminent danger, they looked back and saw flames surging from the right rear compartment of the oil barge. An officer shielded his face from the oncoming flames with his hand and ordered a retreat, but before he could even utter the word ’leave,’ there was a huge ’boom’—two oil tanks on the right rear of the oil barge exploded.

Instantly, flames soared to the sky, and the firefighting officers and soldiers at the explosion were thrown up by the scorching air wave; some fell into the river, some tumbled onto the barge, and some disappeared without a trace..."