1/19/2026 UPDATE:
“City officials said a pressurised storage tank exploded inside the factory. The tank was designed to hold steam and high-temperature water.”
There was an explosion at a steel plate plant in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, on 1/18/2026. This explosion looks to be a steam/pressure vessel explosion. We can see the steam expansion at ground level, just before the vessel is launched vertically. The white cloud afterwards behaves like steam, rather than “smoke”.
This event is said to have resulted (so far) in: