Tianjin disaster: Death toll rises to 50 in massive blasts at Chines port

[webfact]

Death toll rises to 50 in massive blasts at Chinese port
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN

TIANJIN, China (AP) — The death toll from the fiery explosions at a warehouse of hazardous chemicals climbed Thursday to 50, and the Chinese government sent experts to the shattered and smoldering port to assess any environmental dangers from the spectacular blasts.

More than 700 people were injured and dozens were reported missing in the explosions shortly before midnight Wednesday that demolished a workers' dormitory, tossed shipping containers as if they were toy blocks and turned a fleet of 1,000 new cars into scorched metal husks. Windows were shattered for miles around by the shockwaves.

There was no indication of what caused the disaster in one of China's busiest ports, and authorities tried to keep a tight rein over information by keeping reporters well away from the site. Social media users complained their posts about it were deleted.

More than 1,000 firefighters were sent to the mostly industrial zone in Tianjin, a petrochemical processing hub about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Beijing.

Tianjin is the 10th largest port in the world by container volume, according to the World Shipping Council, and the seventh-biggest in China. It handles vast amounts of metal ore, coal, steel, cars and crude oil.

Ships carrying oil and "hazardous products" were barred from the port Thursday, the Tianjin Maritime Safety Administration said on its official microblog. It also said vessels were not allowed to enter the central port zone, which is near the blast site.

The municipal government, which gave the death toll of at least 50, said 701 people were injured, including 71 in serious condition. The Tianjin Port Group Co. said dozens of its employees were unaccounted for and a search is under way. Some migrant workers at the port may not be documented.

Authorities said the blasts started at the warehouse owned by Ruihai Logistics, a company that says it stores hazardous materials including flammable petrochemicals, sodium cyanide and toluene diisocyanate.

An initial explosion apparently triggered an even bigger one. The National Earthquake Bureau said the first blast was the equivalent of 3 tons of TNT, and the second 21 tons. The enormous fireballs from the blasts rolled through a nearby parking lot, turning a fleet of 1,000 new cars into scorched metal husks.

Zhang Siyu, who lives several kilometers (miles) from the blast site, said she ran from her home without her shoes because she initially thought it was an earthquake.

"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," she said.

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

State media said senior management of the company had been detained, and that President Xi Jinping demanded severe punishment for anyone found responsible for the explosions.

There was no immediate sign of any toxic cloud in the air as firefighters brought the fire largely under control by morning. However, the Tianjin government suspended further firefighting to allow the team of experts to survey hazardous materials at the site, assess dangers to the environment and decide how best to proceed.

In a sign of sensitivity over the hazardous materials stored at the warehouse, state broadcaster CCTV went live to a news conference in Tianjin when the head of the municipality's Environmental Protection Bureau chief, Wen Wurui, was speaking. He said there had been no apparent impact on air monitoring stations, but that water samples were still being examined.

When a reporter asked him whether the chemicals at the warehouse had been stored far enough away from residences and Wen seemed at a loss for a response, the broadcaster suddenly cut away, only to return to it later.

Police kept journalists and bystanders away with a cordon about 1 or 2 kilometers (about a mile) from the site. On China's popular Weibo microblogging platform, some users said their posts about the blasts were deleted, and the number of searchable posts on the disaster fluctuated, in a sign that authorities were manipulating or placing limits on the number of posts.

The Tianjin Internet Police, on their official microblog, warned social media users to stick to official reports about the number of dead and injured, saying that there would be "zero tolerance for creating rumors."

The website of the logistics company became inaccessible.

The Tianjin government said that because of the blasts it had suspended online access to public corporate records. It was not clear whether the blackout was due to technical damage related to the explosion. No one answered the phone Thursday at the Tianjin Market and Quality Supervision Administration or the Tianjin Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Ruihai Logistics said on its website — before it was shut down — that it was established in 2011 and is an approved company for handling hazardous materials. It said it handles 1 million tons of cargo annually.

Photos taken by bystanders and circulating on microblogs showed 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 sky bright orange, with tall plumes of smoke.

About 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the explosion site is the luxury Fifth Avenue apartment complex on a road strewn with broken glass and pieces of charred metal thrown from the explosion. Like surrounding buildings, the Mediterranean-style complex had all its windows blown out, and some of its surfaces were scorched.

"It's lucky no one had moved in," said a worker on the site, Liu Junwei, 29. "But for us, it's a total loss. Two years of hard work down the drain."

"It had been all quiet, then the sky just lit up brighter than day and it looked like a fireworks show," said another worker on the site who gave only his surname, Li.

Tianjin, with a population of about 15 million, is being promoted by the Chinese government as a center for finance and high-tech industry. The Tianjin Economic Development Area has attracted foreign investors including Motorola, Toyota, Samsung and Novozymes.

The port has grown in importance as companies wanting lower manufacturing costs have migrated to the north from eastern and southern China's manufacturing centers.

In the U.S., the White House sent its condolences, with spokesman Ned Price calling the explosions a tragedy and praising the first responders working to help the injured.
___

Associated Press writers Ian Mader, Didi Tang and Joe McDonald in Beijing, Erika Kinetz in Shanghai and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-08-14

[Nowisee]

NO smoking please... ok, I'll just step behind this container and fire one up... KABOOOOOM!

[Basil B]

The municipal government, which gave the death toll of at least 50, said 701 people were injured, including 71 in serious condition. The Tianjin Port Group Co. said dozens of its employees were unaccounted for and a search is under way. Some migrant workers at the port may not be documented.

This is China... Initial casualty figures have not been revised for nearly 24 hours now even though news footage shows bodies being retrieved, and I suspect they will not be for some time with the true figures being concealed.

Reports of over two hundred scientists on their way to investigate what chemicals (and explosives) were involved, and the extent of contamination.

Three things come to mind here;

1. China was secretly exporting munitions
2. The shipping company was secretly exporting dangerous chemicals
3. The lax attitude to safety

China is now going into a state of denial by removing pictures from social media and restricting reporting... but for those who have not seen there are a lot pictures and videos on Google showing thousands of brand new burned out cars, Thousands of imploded shipping containers tossed around like match sticks, High rise blocks with every window blown out, fires still burning some 36 hours after the first explosion, some very good drone shoots too (probably flying of drones in the area is now banned), be interesting when the Americans release some satellite images.

[uksomchai]

Up to over 70 now on the latest news reports. The pictures I have sen are shocking. It looks like a nuclear bomb has gone off.

I don't think the truth will ever come out though as they are now closing it down in a big way

[impulse]

Word on the Chinese grapevine is that hundreds of firemen alone have been killed. Obviously can't confirm that, (and the Chinese grapevine is notorious for exxageration) but it sounds like the burning chemicals are very toxic, including cyanide. If they went in withour proper protection, they were doomed.

The warehouse site has been destroyed by the explosions, he told a news conference, and managers of the facility have provided "insufficient information" about what was stored there. Sodium cyanide, a highly toxic chemical that can rapidly kill humans exposed to it, was one of the materials, Gao said. Greenpeace, citing a local monitoring station, said it believed other dangerous chemicals stored at the site included toluene diisocyanate and calcium carbide.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/14/asia/china-tianjin-explosions/index.html

Edited August 14, 2015 by impulse

[ToS2014]

A good logistician is well versed in HAZMAT storage practices, even at large 'commodity' amounts stored at the location. I wonder if standard Western practices were followed, or just place highly reactive cemicals next to others that are simply not 'compatible' for storage. I wonder too, if the emergency services were aware of what and the amounts of the chemicals being stored. I remember very vividly sharing my HAZMAT storage plan/quantities to the local fire department. So, they could actually have a plan to fight an accident (fire/spill/etc) prior, and not just showing up and throwing water on chemicals that are potentially very reactive to the 'standard practice' of a fire. I know a lot of blame will be placed on the logistical company; however, what misses the point is the very simple practice to having a proactive emergency response capability. In the end, a very, very large HAZMAT accident that will no doubt have ripple effects across the world. I would bet a fair amount that most smart logistic managers will place a very fine focus on their storage practices.

[Seastallion]

I've just seen a video. It appears that there was a fire (hence the above post talking about fireman deaths) and these farang started filming.....the explosions are HUGE....I can not believe there are anything less than hundreds dead.

Shocking.

https://video-kul1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xtf1/v/t43.1792-2/11729730_10153155176552424_1033965084_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjE1MDAsInJsYSI6MTAyNH0%3D&rl=1500&vabr=281&oh=b2f392d24ffb2505dfa6926ebe3b495f&oe=55CE1BD6

[oxo1947]

Breaking News: Chines factory worker with singed trousers and smoking a cigarette,

found clinging on to the International Space Station............................

[balo]

I just saw a terrible video footage of a whole family being destroyed , very bad this for China, hope they can do something to prevent accidents like this in the future.

[Seastallion]

I've just seen some more......I will not sleep well tonight. It is devastating.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/84695797/

[Seastallion]

Breaking News: Chines factory worker with singed trousers and smoking a cigarette,

found clinging on to the International Space Station............................

Not funny. This was a conflagration.

[impulse]

If interested, here are the GPS coordinates from Google Earth (keep in mind China requires some offset for "national security" purposes. The coords may be off a few hundred meters on services other than GE.)

39° 2'25.23"N 117°44'9.41"E

I have been to a lot of trade shows at the Binhai Exhibition Center, caddy corner to the explosion yard, though some articles now describe it as abandoned.

Fortunately, the area has a little bit of the China ghost city syndrome with a lot of vacant apartments. Otherwise, it would have been a lot worse.

Edited August 14, 2015 by impulse

[phazey]

Here's a stabilised video of the explosions. Contains profanity (and tbh, i don't blame them)

[Publicus]

Here is a rundown of various media and other reports:

Chinese business media Caixin in Beijing has reported the destroyed area regularly contained numerous dangerous materials including, calcium carbide, sodium cyanide, caustic soda, sodium sulfide, argon, methyl ethyl ketone, sulfuric acid, nitric acid potassium, sodium nitrate, formic acid, phosphoric acid, compressed natural gas and others.

Apple Daily in Hong Kong reported 8000 PLA soldiers at the scene to include units of Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Warfare specialists and that, of the 120 fire and police first responders to arrive on the scene Thursday night only four had emerged to be accounted for. An unknown number of worker factory dormitory residences were destroyed throughout the district by the midnight blasts and huge fires, Apple Daily said.

• Sodium cyanide found in the water at Tinajin blast site

• 360 social media accounts blogging about Tianjin blast shut down or suspended

• 1. Beijing accused of lacking transparency over Tianjin explosions

A live press conference in Tianjin broadcast by state CCTV was suddenly censored black and silent when a reporter asked the head of the city's Environmental Protection Bureau whether the chemicals in the facilities had been stored far enough away from houses and businesses. The Tianjin Internet Police have since posted that online comments must adhere to the information provided by the official news sources.

Bob Richards, former chief of the Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety Program of the US Department of Transportation, said, “You have unscrupulous shippers [in China] that many times do not follow the rules in place internationally,” adding that in 95 percent of cases where there’s an incident, it comes down to people not following existing rules.

According to the Maritime Transport Working Group which represents the European shippers in China, “Many cases of fraudulent declarations of dangerous cargo from China have been reported, resulting in frequent fires and the increased risk of casualties, vessel damage, and heavy pollution. For instance, cargo declared as plastic toys could in fact be fireworks,”

A senior management engineer of the Tianjin Academy of Environmental Sciences said on Tianjin radio that there are on average 700 tons of toxic chemicals in the now destroyed district at any given time, either in storage or en route. It's what in English we call a toxic cocktail.

The figure includes an undetermined quantity of sodium cyanide which in contact with water becomes a toxic hydrogen cyanide gas (and flammable). New fires continue to erupt in what appears to be an ongoing process of spontaneous combustion.

An official of the CCP government in Tianjin said today the air quality is "excellent."

[Basil B]

An official of the CCP government in Tianjin said today the air quality is "excellent."

I assume his office is well outside the 3Km evacuation zone, maybe the should move his office to a tent near the epicentre of the devastation to reassure everyone the air quality is fine...

Edited August 15, 2015 by Basil B

[Publicus]

An official of the CCP government in Tianjin said today the air quality is "excellent."

I assume his office is well outside the 3Km evacuation zone, maybe the should move his office to a tent near the epicentre of the devastation to reassure everyone the air quality is fine...

Yes indeed.

Tianjin is anyway at the heart of the CCP China Black Lung in the earth's biosphere. This adds fire and physical devastation of infrastructure to it.

The usual Black Lung environment goes beyond the Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan slurp and so will the consequences of this ten times or more Halifax explosions in Canada when a WW2 ammo ship in the harbor exploded to level the entire area.

That upper northeast Beijing-Tianjin-Dalian corner of the CCP China is a bit more than the size of Texas yet it has more people living there than populate the entire United States. Imagine packing the entire population of the USA into Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico. Then blowing 'em up with fire and blast while filling the rest of 'em with black smoke, toxic chemicals, poison gas.

The CCP China, where the air quality is "excellent."

[balo]

Latest numbers are more than 85 dead and 58 in serious condition.

[Publicus]

A major reason among many the CCP China government under reports fatalities in disasters is that, while deaths are inevitable in earthquakes or in these kind of explosions and infernos, the one child policy means the loss of any one of the three persons in the immediate family is excruciatingly catastrophic. In the Richter 9 scale Sichuan quake of 2008 so many new school buildings collapsed that had been built on the cheap by CCP local and provincial officials on the take. A three-member family suddenly becomes two or in the instance of an auto accident, one (the CCP China is number 2 globally in both number and rate of road deaths, behind India). In any kind of disaster people's first thought of the how and the why goes to CCP corruption and CCP ineptitude.

In Sichuan older school buildings did well while newer additions next to them were a rubble.

In this Tian Jin holocaust, families residing in their apartments in the area suffered, as did families of workers on site, young single workers living in factory dorms are gone, firefighter sons or fathers are missing, and more.

So the CCP officials locally, of the province and nationally are in full theater to put on their show of caring and of seizing whomever they can identify as the culprits to prosecute or persecute. Anyone except themselves.

[Publicus]

Breaking News: Chines factory worker with singed trousers and smoking a cigarette,

found clinging on to the International Space Station............................

Not funny. This was a conflagration.

The link is to a security camera inside a department store recording the instant of the first explosion moments after a man had just paused inside at the glass doors....don't have any additional info on the guy I'm afraid....

http://www.businessinsider.com/cecurity-camera-footage-of-tianjin-explosion-2015-8

A wider lens straight out above rooftops view of the first explosion as it occurred and that shows the width of the blast...

<script height="450px" width="800px" src="http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=MGUzMzQ5MjczMzEzYjZkZTJlYTFkMWEw&ec=0xMGp5djqsZw1x8EZiwwlqXvd88tu3_A"></script>

There are witness videos at the first link posted uncensored by Chinese.