|
 More than a dozen firefighters were among those killed by the
massive explosions at the busy port in Tianjin city on Wednesday
night, state media said. About 700 people were injured, 71
seriously.
Columns of smoke from fires still burning on Friday rose from the
blast site amid the devastation of crumpled shipping containers,
thousands of torched cars and port buildings reduced to burnt-out
shells. Rescuers pulled one survivor, from the wreckage, a city
official told reporters. State television later said it was a
firefighter.
The warehouse, designed to house dangerous and toxic chemicals, was
storing mainly ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate and calcium
carbide at the time of the blasts, according to police. The official
Xinhua news agency has said several containers in the warehouse
caught fire before the explosions.
Chemical safety experts said calcium carbide reacts with water to
create acetylene, a highly explosive gas. An explosion could be
caused if fire fighters sprayed the calcium carbide with water, they
said.
Lei Jinde, the deputy propaganda department head of China's fire
department, a part of the Ministry of Public Security, told
state-backed news website ThePaper.cn that the first group of fire
fighters on the scene had used water.
"We knew there was calcium carbide inside but we didn't know whether
it had already exploded," he said.
"At that point no one knew, it wasn't that the fire fighters were
stupid," Lei said, adding that it was a large warehouse and they
didn't know the exact location of the calcium carbide.
CCTV reported that another four firefighters were confirmed dead and
13 were still missing. Xinhua said earlier that 66 firefighters were
among the hundreds of people hospitalized.
David Leggett, a chemical safety expert based in California, told
Reuters the acetylene explosion could have detonated the ammonium
nitrate. The two blasts were about 30 seconds apart, the second much
larger than the first.
"In my mind, the presence of ammonium nitrate makes it easier to
explain the level of devastation," he said.
Stuart Prescott, a senior lecturer in chemical engineering at the
University of New South Wales in Australia, said water was
recommended to extinguish the two nitrates but a chemical powder was
needed for calcium carbide.
"Calcium carbide reacts with the water and that's a reasonably
violent reaction in and of itself, because it releases gas. The gas
itself is also flammable," he said.
 ASSESSING DAMAGE
The explosions at the port, the world's 10th largest, were so big
they were seen by satellites in space and registered on earthquake
sensors.
A team from the Beijing Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre
(RSMC) under the China Meteorological Administration, as well as 214
Chinese military nuclear and biochemical materials specialists, had
gone to Tianjin, Xinhua said.
Several thousand residents were moved to 10 nearby schools after
apartment buildings and homes were damaged, mainly by shockwaves
from the explosions, it said.
Foreign companies from across the globe were trying to determine the
damage to their facilities in and around the port, a gateway to
northeast China.
French carmaker Renault <RENA.PA> said its warehouse at the port
sustained severe damage and nearly 1,500 of its cars stored there
were burned, according to early estimates.
[to top of second column] |
Several Japanese automakers including Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T>
reported minor damage to cars and facilities.
Mining giant BHP Billiton <BHP.AX> said its port operations and
shipments were disrupted but its iron ore discharging berth had not
been damaged.
Oil tanker arrivals and departures were also disrupted.
John Deere & Co <DE.N>, the U.S. farm and construction equipment
maker, said several workers who were at home at the time were
injured, some critically.
PACKAGING "SUB-STANDARD"
Xinhua identified the owner of the warehouse as Tianjin Dongjiang
Port Ruihai International Logistics. The state-backed China Daily
newspaper said its manager had been detained.
The Tianjin Maritime Safety Administration said the company violated
packaging standards during a safety inspection two years ago.
Of 4,325 containers that were checked, five failed the inspection
because packaging was sub-standard, according to a report posted on
the administration's website in January 2014.
The company's website said it was a government-approved firm
specializing in handling "dangerous goods". Phone numbers listed on
its website were disconnected and an email to the company went
unanswered.
President Xi Jinping said those responsible should be "severely
handled".
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.
Wednesday's blasts sent shockwaves through apartment blocks
kilometers away in the port city of 15 million people. Internet
videos showed fireballs shooting into the sky.
The blasts shattered windows in buildings and cars and knocked down
walls in a 2-km radius around the site.
(This version of the story corrects name of meteorological
organisation sent to the scene, removes erroneous reference to IAEA,
paragraph 15)
(Additional reporting by Joseph Campbell in TIANJIN, Kazunori
Takada, Chen Yixin, Brenda Goh and Sue-Lin Wong in SHANGHAI, Michael
Martina, Jason Subler, Sui-Lee Wee and Judy Hua in BEIJING, Matt
Siegel in SYDNEY, Michael Pell in NEW YORK and Meredith Davis in
CHICAGO; Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and
Paul Tait)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
