Thirty-nine years ago today, on November 1, 1986 (September 29, 1986 lunar calendar), the Sandoz Chemical Plant in Switzerland exploded. On November 1, 1986, warehouse 956 of the Sandoz Chemical Plant in Basel, Switzerland, was turned into a sea of fire in a violent explosion. This warehouse is a simple building built in 1968 to store machinery and equipment, with an area of 6,000 square meters and no fire extinguishing devices. At the time of the explosion, the warehouse contained 824 tons of high-efficiency pesticides, 71 tons of herbicides, 12 tons of mercury compounds, and 4 tons of flammable and toxic mixtures that were illegally stored. At that time, the fire column was more than 60 meters high, and the drums filled with chemical agents kept exploding, forming fireballs that shot into the air. During the hours of 160 firefighters battling the blaze, two fire engines sprayed fire-fighting fluid into the blaze almost every minute. The radio broadcast an alarm message, and residents were told not to leave their homes. Police cars constantly patrolled the streets and issued a notice: residents should keep their doors and windows closed. The explosion in the warehouse of the Sandoz chemical plant caused a huge ecological disaster. Two days after the accident, 150,000 eels in the Basel and Karlsrul rivers were unwittingly damaged, leaving the eels in this section of the river on the verge of extinction. What was particularly unexpected was that not only did the fire bring an ecological and chemical disaster, but the fire suppression itself was no exception to destroy the ecological environment. The fire-fighting fluid reacts chemically when exposed to high temperatures, generating harmful gases. Large amounts of water used to fight fires carried 10 to 30 tons of pesticides and at least 200 kilograms of mercury through drains into the nearby Rhine River, causing the gradual death of life within hundreds of kilometers of the river that has been celebrated for generations. The Rhine River, which originates in the Alps, is 1,320 kilometers long, flows through Switzerland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and empties into the North Sea from Holland Bay. The pollution has covered the surface of the 40-kilometer-long Rhine River with a film of toxic substances. Toxic substances flow down the river, and finally the North Sea is also protected from pollution. The pollution caused losses to coastal countries of $60 million, and the fishing losses caused by pollution in Baden, Germany, which borders Switzerland, reached $5 million alone. In later years, the Rhine River was fish-free. People along the Rhine have been warned not to drink. The French government has banned its own fishermen from fishing in the river, and has banned livestock grazing along the river. Several German towns rely on fire trucks to transport water to their residents. The Rhine has always been a beautiful and desirable tourist destination. The pollution has also dealt a serious blow to tourism. Never in the history of the Rhine has such a catastrophe occurred. That is why some people call the accident "the Chernobyl of the water industry".