Officials: At least 13 dead in China port explosions

[webfact]

Officials: At least 13 dead in China port explosions
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN

TIANJIN, China (AP) — Huge explosions sparked overnight at a warehouse for dangerous materials in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin killed at least 13 people, injured hundreds and sent massive fireballs into the night sky, officials and state media outlets said Thursday.

CCTV, the state-run broadcaster, said that another 248 people had been admitted to hospitals in the city, east of Beijing. The explosions late Wednesday knocked off doors of buildings in the area and shattered windows up to several kilometers away.

"I thought it was an earthquake, so I rushed downstairs without my shoes on," Tianjin resident Zhang Siyu, whose home is several kilometers from the blast site, said in a telephone interview. "Only once I was outside did I realize it was an explosion. There was the huge fireball in the sky with thick clouds. Everybody could see it."

Zhang said she could see wounded people weeping. She said she did not see anyone who had been killed, but "I could feel death."

Police in Tianjin said an initial blast took place late Wednesday night at shipping containers of a warehouse for hazardous materials owned by a logistics company.

The official Xinhua News agency said an initial explosion triggered other blasts at nearby businesses. The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts before midnight, the first with an equivalent of 3 tons of TNT, and the second with the equivalent of 21 tons.

Photos apparently taken by bystanders and circulating on microblogs show a gigantic fireball high in the sky, with a mushroom-cloud. Other photos on state media outlets showed a sea of fire that painted the night sky bright orange, with tall plumes of smoke.

In one neighborhood of Tianjin about 10 to 20 kilometers (6 to 12 miles) from the blast site, some residents were sleeping on the street wearing gas masks, although there was no perceptible problem with the air apart from massive clouds of smoke seen in the distance.

"It was like the earthquake back in 1976 with glass breaking," resident Han Xiang said. "But then there was a huge mushroom cloud so we thought we were also in a war."

State broadcaster CCTV said six battalions of firefighters had brought the ensuing fire under control, although it was still burning. It said the firefighters were combing the neighborhood to look for further injured residents.

The logistics company was identified in state media as Ruihai Logistics. The company says on its website that it was established in 2011 and is an approved company for handling hazardous materials. It says it handles 1 million tons of cargo annually.

Tianjin is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Beijing on the Bohai Sea and is one of the country's major ports.
__

Associated Press writers Ian Mader and Didi Tang in Beijing contributed.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-08-13

[webfact]

17 dead, 400 hurt as huge blasts hits China's Tianjin

TIANJIN, China - A series of massive explosions at a warehouse in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin killed 17 people, state media reported Thursday, as witnesses described a fireball from the blasts ripping through the night sky.

An AFP reporter at the scene saw shattered glass up to three kilometres (two miles) from the blast site, after a shipment of explosives detonated in an industrial zone raining debris on the city.

Plumes of smoke still billowed over buildings six hours after the explosion, which occurred around 11:30 pm (1530 GMT) local time.

"The fireball was huge, maybe as much as 100 metres tall," said 27-year-old Huang Shiting, whose house is close to the port area of the city where the explosion took place.

"I heard the first explosion and everyone went outside, then there was a series of more explosions, windows shattered and a lot of people who were inside were hurt and came running out, bleeding," he told AFP.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that 17 people had been killed and more than 400 hospitalised, adding in a Twitter posted that President Xi Jinping had urged "all-out efforts to rescue victims and extinguish fire".

Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily said in a post on Chinese social network Weibo that more people remained trapped by a huge fire unleashed by the explosives.

Images obtained by AFP showed residents, some partially clothed, running for shelter on a street strewn with debris.

Between 300 and 400 injured people had arrived at a single hospital, according to the Beijing News, which also cited a worker at another healthy facility saying there were too many new patients to count.

The magnitude of the first explosion was the equivalent of detonating three tonnes of TNT, the China Earthquake Networks Centre said on its verified Weibo account, and was followed by a second stronger blast equal to detonating 21 tonnes of the explosive.

Two firefighters called to the scene were missing, state news agency Xinhua reported, as 10 emergency teams and 35 fire trucks battled the blaze.

Much of the area surrounding the explosion is made up of construction sites for residential and office buildings. Worker dormitories, built of flimsy sheets of thin metal, were torn apart by the blast.

At the city’s TEDA hospital, close to the blast site, Zhang Hongjie, 50, sat with his head wrapped in bandages, his arms covered with small cuts from flying glass.

"The explosion was terrifying, and I almost passed out," he told AFP. "I’m sorry, I still can’t think straight, I’m a bit confused," he said.

Hospital staff said most of those that arrived overnight had been discharged.

Poor safety record

China has a dismal industrial safety record as some owners evade regulations to save money and pay off corrupt officials to look the other way.

In July, 15 people were killed and more than a dozen injured when an illegal fireworks warehouse exploded in northern Hebei province.

And at least 71 were killed in an explosion at a car parts factory in Kunshan, near Shanghai, in August last year.

Tianjin, which lies about 140 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of Beijing, is one of China’s biggest cities, with a population of nearly 15 million people according to 2013 figures.

A manufacturing centre and major port for northern China, it is closely linked to Beijing, with a high-speed train line cutting the travel time between them to only 30 minutes.

Like Shanghai, several countries were granted trading "concessions" there during the 19th and early 20th centuries -- settlements which were administered by a foreign power -- starting with Britain and France in 1860.

Tianjin’s city centre retains a legacy of historic colonial architecture, along with more recent skyscrapers.

It is one of only four cities in China -- along with Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing -- to have the status of a province.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/17-dead-400-hurt-as-huge-blasts-hits-Chinas-Tianji-30266482.html


-- The Nation 2015-08-13

[LennyW]

I was working there earlier this year, very busy place i am surprised the death toll is not far higher, not hard to imagine the devastation.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33896292

Edited August 13, 2015 by LennyW

[Guest]

Those explosions were M2.6 and M2.9 on richter scale. M3.0 equals to 32 tons of TNT. (Note, not kilotons)

https://www.hongkongfp.com/2015/08/13/live-huge-explosion-reported-in-chinese-port-city-of-tianjin/

Video and the shock wave of the second blast.

[user82374298374]

Looking at those photos, no wonder the poor residents thought they'd been nuked.

Edited August 13, 2015 by disambiguated

[peterjackson]

This place is a genuine 'hub' of commercial and export/import activity. Truly a 24/7 port with thousands of workers on site at any given time.

I am confident the true number of deaths will be higher than presently reported.

Although China does have an abysmal industrial accident record in general, I have seen nothing but excellent protocols at major ports and facilities around port areas in China. Accidents can and do happen and sometimes it's just someone taking a shortcut when a SOP is in effect.

My thoughts are with all those affected.

[IMA_FARANG]

Looking at those photos, no wonder the poor residents thought they'd been nuked.

--------------------------------------

From my limited experience, I think that 2nd explosion was military grade munitions explosives. I believe that the Chinese military had munitions stored there.... that is why the Chinese authorities are deliberately blocking reporters form getting details of what is really happening..... removing reports and videos from social media and such.

Was anyone here in Bangkok in the late 1970's or early 1980's when that Thai Army ammunition plant blew up on the outskirts of Bangkok? Was a similar blast then.

[Basil B]

I was working there earlier this year, very busy place i am surprised the death toll is not far higher, not hard to imagine the devastation.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33896292

Unfortunately it is...

50+... and you know how China is conservative on these sort of figures

Twelve firefighters are among those who lost their lives; 36 of their colleagues are still missing.

That makes 48... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33900268

I suspect we are looking at many hundreds, over 700 injuries.

Many buildings flattened, first explosion equal to 3 tons of TNT the second equalled 21 tons...

It must be hard for any firefighter not to feel sorry for their colleges in China but at the same time think of the poor safety standards in China which not only put the Chinese at risk, but also the dodgy merchandise coming out of China putting everybody in the world at risk.

Edited August 13, 2015 by Basil B

[Tywais]

From my limited experience, I think that 2nd explosion was military grade munitions explosives.

I believe that the Chinese military had munitions stored there.... that is why the Chinese authorities are deliberately

blocking reporters form getting details of what is really happening..... removing reports and videos from social media and such.

Was anyone here in Bangkok in the late 1970's or early 1980's when that Thai Army ammunition plant blew up on the outskirts of Bangkok?

Was a similar blast then.

I witnessed an explosion equal to or greater then the China port one. In 1968, stationed at Utapao, I had a bungalow off base a few kilometers away and near Ban Chang. One evening as I was showering I heard an explosion in the distance. I didn't think anything of it and figured they were blasting the mountain where they got the material to build the base on though I thought it a bit late for that. A 2nd explosion which sounded closer and I put on my sarong and went outside to see what's up.

The villagers were all out and asking me what was happening. As I was looking toward the base I saw a massive fireball climbing in the sky and had to look up to see the top even at that distance. Several seconds later the shock wave hit nearly knocking me off my feet and the windows shattered. I immediately got dressed and grabbed a baht bus back to base.

Working in communications I saw reports coming in and thought it was a single bunker of 10-15 500 pound bombs (2-3 tons). Years later I felt that couldn't be right after seeing videos of equivalent explosions. I spent a lot of time researching for info on this but was surprisingly difficult to find. Finally found a government document from a military medical report of someone filing for disability from injuries in a blast in Utapao.

One item in the report stated that one explosion during that time was an aircraft on the runway bombed by insurgents. The 2nd item said that nearly the entire bomb dump of around 263 bombs went off. One 500 pound bomb contains around 192 pounds of Tritonal. That would be around 25-30 tons of explosives (depending on how many 750 pound bombs were in the mix) and that closer matches what I saw and experienced. It damaged the roof of a movie theater near Rayong several kilometers away.

The blast wasn't spread out as shown in the China videos but straight up with a mushroom fireball head. Suspect due to the bombs being in concrete revetments creating a shaped charge effect.

BTW, the guy filing for medical disability was refused as it turns out he wasn't even there during that time.