Explosion at butadiene rubber plant injures three in Malaysia

Johor, Malaysia – An explosion and fire at Lotte Ube Synthetic Rubbers’ (LUSR) butadiene rubber plant injured three workers on February 24. The incident happened at a rubber plant in the Tanjung Langsat industrial complex in Malaysia’s Johor state and left three people with severe burn injuries.

LUSR is a joint venture between South Korea’s Lotte Chemical, its Malaysian subsidiary Lotte Chemical Titan, and Japan’s Ube Industries. Local news sites said an explosion occurred at around 15:15 local time, causing damage to storage tanks and a pipeline.

The Johor Fire and Rescue Department managed to extinguish a fire caused by the explosion while emergency services took three workers to hospital where they were treated for burn injuries and a broken leg after one of them jumped from a building to escape the flames. The cause of the blast remains unknown, and the plant has been shut while an investigation is carried out at the site.