Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:55am EDT
By Joseph Campbell and Sui-Lee Wee
TIANJIN, China (Reuters) -
Two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeast Chinese port city of Tianjin, killing at least 44 people, including at least a dozen fire fighters, officials and state media said on Thursday.
At least 520 people were injured, more than 60
of them seriously, the Tianjin government said
on its Weibo microblog, and the People's Daily
newspaper said four fires were still burning.
Wednesday night's blasts, so large that they
were seen by satellites in space, sent
shockwaves through apartment blocks
kilometers away in the port city of 15 million
people.
Internet videos showed fireballs shooting into the sky and the U.S. Geological Survey registered the blasts as seismic events.
Vast areas of the port - the 10th largest in the
world - were devastated, crumpled shipping
containers were thrown around like match
sticks, hundreds of new cars were torched and
port buildings left as burnt-out shells, Reuters
witnesses said.
"I was sleeping when our windows and doors
suddenly shook as we heard explosions outside. I first thought it was an earthquake," Guan Xiang, who lives 7 km (4 miles) away from the explosion site, told Reuters by telephone.
Guan, 24, said he saw flames and a mushroom
cloud in the sky as he and other residents
scrambled to get out of the building.
Tianjin authorities said 12 firefighters were
among the 44 killed. The cause of the blasts was unknown but industrial accidents are not uncommon in China following three decades of breakneck economic growth.
A blast at an auto parts factory in eastern China killed 75 people a year ago when a room filled with metal dust exploded.
The state-run Beijing News earlier cited Tianjin
fire authorities as saying they had lost contact
with 36 firefighters, and that another 33 were
among the hundreds of people being treated in nearby hospitals. The official Xinhua news agency said 1,000 firefighters and more than 140 fire engines were struggling to contain a blaze in a warehouse that contained "dangerous goods". "The volatility of the goods means the fire is especially unpredictable and dangerous to approach," Xinhua said.
Several fire trucks had been destroyed and
nearby firefighters wept as they worked to
extinguish flames, the Beijing News reported.
President Xi Jinping demanded that authorities
"make full effort to rescue and treat the injured
and ensure the safety of people and their
property". Xi said in a statement carried by official media that those responsible should be "severely handled".
City officials had met recently with companies to discuss tightening safety standards on the
handling of dangerous chemicals. The Tianjin
Administration of Work Safety posted a notice
about the meeting with companies at the port on its website a week ago
TOXIC SMOKE
Anxious residents rushed to hospitals to seek
news about injured loved ones. Dozens of police guarded the entrance of the TEDA hospital, a Reuters witness said.
Pictures on Chinese media websites showed
residents and workers, some bleeding, fleeing
their homes. Xinhua said people had been hurt
by broken glass and other flying debris.
Gray clouds of smoke billowed above the blast
site and several trucks carrying paramilitary
police - wearing masks to protect them from
potentially toxic smoke - headed to the area.
The blasts shattered windows in buildings and
cars and knocked down walls in a 2-km radius
around the site. Photographs on news websites showed burned-out cars inside a multi-story car park at a logistics base at the port.
Video posted on YouTube from what appeared
to be an apartment building some distance from the scene showed an initial blast followed by a second, much bigger, explosion. Shockwaves hit the building seconds later.
"Our building is shaking. Is this an atomic bomb?" said a frenzied voice inside.
[url=https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeXBME2YVQo]Youtube Video[/url]
Despite the devastation, the port was operating normally, a port official said. Tianjin port is the gateway to northern China's industrial belt.
Xinhua said the explosions, the first equivalent
to 3 tonnes of TNT and the second to 21 tonnes of TNT, ripped through a warehouse.
It identified the owner of the warehouse as
Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International
Logistics. The company's website said it was a
government-approved firm specializing in
handling "dangerous goods".
Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to an assessment by government
environmental inspectors published in 2014, the facility was designed to store several dangerous and toxic chemicals including butanone, an explosive industrial solvent, sodium cyanide and compressed natural gas.
CCTV said at least one person at a "relevant
company" had been detained.
(Additional reporting by Adam Rose in TIANJIN, Kazunori Takada, Chen Yixin, Brenda Goh and Sue-Lin Wong in SHANGHAI, and Michael Martina, Jason Subler, Megha Rajagopalan and Judy Hua in BEIJING; Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Paul Tait and Nick Macfie)
By Joseph Campbell and Sui-Lee Wee
TIANJIN, China (Reuters) -
Two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeast Chinese port city of Tianjin, killing at least 44 people, including at least a dozen fire fighters, officials and state media said on Thursday.
At least 520 people were injured, more than 60
of them seriously, the Tianjin government said
on its Weibo microblog, and the People's Daily
newspaper said four fires were still burning.
Wednesday night's blasts, so large that they
were seen by satellites in space, sent
shockwaves through apartment blocks
kilometers away in the port city of 15 million
people.
Internet videos showed fireballs shooting into the sky and the U.S. Geological Survey registered the blasts as seismic events.
Vast areas of the port - the 10th largest in the
world - were devastated, crumpled shipping
containers were thrown around like match
sticks, hundreds of new cars were torched and
port buildings left as burnt-out shells, Reuters
witnesses said.
"I was sleeping when our windows and doors
suddenly shook as we heard explosions outside. I first thought it was an earthquake," Guan Xiang, who lives 7 km (4 miles) away from the explosion site, told Reuters by telephone.
Guan, 24, said he saw flames and a mushroom
cloud in the sky as he and other residents
scrambled to get out of the building.
Tianjin authorities said 12 firefighters were
among the 44 killed. The cause of the blasts was unknown but industrial accidents are not uncommon in China following three decades of breakneck economic growth.
A blast at an auto parts factory in eastern China killed 75 people a year ago when a room filled with metal dust exploded.
The state-run Beijing News earlier cited Tianjin
fire authorities as saying they had lost contact
with 36 firefighters, and that another 33 were
among the hundreds of people being treated in nearby hospitals. The official Xinhua news agency said 1,000 firefighters and more than 140 fire engines were struggling to contain a blaze in a warehouse that contained "dangerous goods". "The volatility of the goods means the fire is especially unpredictable and dangerous to approach," Xinhua said.
Several fire trucks had been destroyed and
nearby firefighters wept as they worked to
extinguish flames, the Beijing News reported.
President Xi Jinping demanded that authorities
"make full effort to rescue and treat the injured
and ensure the safety of people and their
property". Xi said in a statement carried by official media that those responsible should be "severely handled".
City officials had met recently with companies to discuss tightening safety standards on the
handling of dangerous chemicals. The Tianjin
Administration of Work Safety posted a notice
about the meeting with companies at the port on its website a week ago
TOXIC SMOKE
Anxious residents rushed to hospitals to seek
news about injured loved ones. Dozens of police guarded the entrance of the TEDA hospital, a Reuters witness said.
Pictures on Chinese media websites showed
residents and workers, some bleeding, fleeing
their homes. Xinhua said people had been hurt
by broken glass and other flying debris.
Gray clouds of smoke billowed above the blast
site and several trucks carrying paramilitary
police - wearing masks to protect them from
potentially toxic smoke - headed to the area.
The blasts shattered windows in buildings and
cars and knocked down walls in a 2-km radius
around the site. Photographs on news websites showed burned-out cars inside a multi-story car park at a logistics base at the port.
Video posted on YouTube from what appeared
to be an apartment building some distance from the scene showed an initial blast followed by a second, much bigger, explosion. Shockwaves hit the building seconds later.
"Our building is shaking. Is this an atomic bomb?" said a frenzied voice inside.
[url=https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeXBME2YVQo]Youtube Video[/url]
Despite the devastation, the port was operating normally, a port official said. Tianjin port is the gateway to northern China's industrial belt.
Xinhua said the explosions, the first equivalent
to 3 tonnes of TNT and the second to 21 tonnes of TNT, ripped through a warehouse.
It identified the owner of the warehouse as
Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International
Logistics. The company's website said it was a
government-approved firm specializing in
handling "dangerous goods".
Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to an assessment by government
environmental inspectors published in 2014, the facility was designed to store several dangerous and toxic chemicals including butanone, an explosive industrial solvent, sodium cyanide and compressed natural gas.
CCTV said at least one person at a "relevant
company" had been detained.
(Additional reporting by Adam Rose in TIANJIN, Kazunori Takada, Chen Yixin, Brenda Goh and Sue-Lin Wong in SHANGHAI, and Michael Martina, Jason Subler, Megha Rajagopalan and Judy Hua in BEIJING; Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Paul Tait and Nick Macfie)
Semper Fidelis
![[Image: SyAa0qj.png]](https://i.imgur.com/SyAa0qj.png)
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