Thousands without heat after boiler fails

Residents of Liaoyang, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, have been promised their heating will resume on Friday after being left for two days in freezing temperatures when a boiler failed at a local power plant.

The accident was caused by a burst pipe in the boiler, at a plant run by Hongyang Thermal Power in Liaoyang at 3 pm on Tuesday.

The indoor temperature at a residence in Liaoyang city, in Northeast China's Liaoning province, falls on Wednesday night after a boiler at a power plant broke down the day before. SUN HAI / FOR CHINA DAILY

The heating service is provided by a Hongyang-run company owned by Shenyang Coal Trade Group, said officials. The system provides service for almost 70,000 households in the city.

After a two-day overhaul, the boiler was ignited at 6 am on Thursday and began heating supply at 3 pm, said Li Meiyu, spokesperson for the Party committee of Liaoyang.

From 5 pm on Thursday, the temperature inside residences began to rise and the heating system would be back to normal by Friday morning, Li said.

Zhou Guangmin, director for the heating office at Liaoyang government, apologized to residents affected by the accident and pledged to provide effective services this winter.

However, Ma Naiyou, a 70-year-old retired resident in the Baita district of the city, said that his radiators were still cold at 6 pm on Thursday.

Ma said that the two-day heating loss had caused him considerable discomfort as a recent stroke means he has to stay at home in winter.

Bei Dianqiu, a resident in the Hongwei district of Liaoyang, also said the loss of heating had been hard to cope with. He said he had noticed in October that the pipes for heating were put underground without any protective covers.

He had expressed his concerns over the potential problem to the heating company, but had got no reply.