Fire at Russia-China Gas Megaproject Kills Seven, Six of Them Chinese Workers

Video shows workers sprinting away from a Russian gas-chemical plant as fire spreads behind them — the moment a $10 billion joint venture between Russia and China turned into one of the deadliest industrial accidents either country has seen this year.

A fire broke out on Tuesday, August 25, in a support section of a pyrolysis unit at the Amur Gas Chemical Complex (AGCC), near the town of Svobodny in Russia's Far East, close to the Chinese border. The blaze took roughly a day to bring fully under control. Seven people died — six Chinese nationals and one other person reported in some accounts as a Russian woman — and more than 150 people were injured. Nine additional Chinese contractor employees were reported missing in the fire's immediate aftermath.

AGCC is a roughly $10 billion joint venture between Russian petrochemical giant Sibur and China's state-owned Sinopec, designed to be one of the world's largest polymer manufacturing complexes. It was still in final testing ahead of a planned 2027 launch when the fire broke out — meaning the disaster struck a flagship bilateral project before it had even started commercial operation, and raises immediate questions about safety oversight on a site of this scale.

AGCC said its primary production equipment was not damaged, and regional officials said the fire posed no toxic threat to nearby towns, with consumer-protection authorities reporting no abnormal readings in local air quality. Reports differ on the exact injury breakdown — some put 19 people hospitalized with moderate-to-severe injuries and 104 more treated for minor cuts and bruises, while others cite roughly 36 hospitalized out of 152 total injured — but outlets agree on the overall death toll of seven and the total injury count of over 150. Russia's Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under Part 1 of Article 217 of the Russian Criminal Code, covering violations of industrial safety rules at hazardous facilities, and is examining whether safety failures contributed to the deaths.

China's consulate general said it would provide "the greatest aid" to the Chinese nationals killed and injured in the fire, according to Chinese state-linked outlet Global Times. AGCC has emphasized that its core production equipment escaped damage, while Amur regional authorities have focused public statements on reassuring nearby residents there is no ongoing danger to the surrounding population.

Nine missing Chinese contractor workers had not been accounted for as of the most recent reporting, and it remains unconfirmed whether they will be found alive, among the dead, or unaccounted for entirely. Russia's Investigative Committee has not yet disclosed a cause, and any conclusions from its industrial-safety criminal case could take weeks or months. It is also not yet clear how the fire will affect the complex's planned 2027 launch date.

A flagship Russia-China industrial project meant to symbolize deepening economic ties between the two countries has instead become the site of one of the year's deadliest workplace disasters, with the true toll — including nine still-missing workers — not yet fully known.