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2015 Tianjin explosions

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2015 Tianjin explosions
Fireball from the first explosion
Date12 August 2015 – present
Time~23:30 CST (~15:30 UTC) onwards
VenuePort of Tianjin
LocationBinhai, Tianjin, China
Coordinates39°02′20″N 117°44′14″E / 39.0389°N 117.7371°E / 39.0389; 117.7371
TypeExplosion
CauseUnder investigation
Deaths114 (including 12+ firemen)
Non-fatal injuries722 (including 58 severe injuries)
Missing70 (mostly firefighters)
FootageVideo

Template:Contains Chinese text

Location of the explosion

The 2015 Tianjin explosions were a series of explosions that occurred at a container storage station at the Port of Tianjin starting on Wednesday, 12 August 2015. The first two explosions occurred within 30 seconds of each other at the facility, which is located in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, China. Over one hundred people were killed and hundreds of others were injured. The cause of the explosions was not immediately known, but initial reports pointed to an industrial accident. Fires caused by the initial explosions continued to burn uncontrolled throughout the weekend, repeatedly causing secondary explosions. Eight additional explosions occurred on Saturday, 15 August.

Chinese state media reported that at least the initial blast was from unknown hazardous materials in shipping containers at a plant warehouse owned by Ruihai Logistics, a firm specializing in handling hazardous materials.

Background

Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics (天津东疆保税港区瑞海国际物流有限公司), or Ruihai Logistics (瑞海物流), is a privately held logistics company established in 2011. It handles hazardous chemicals within the Port of Tianjin, such as compressed air, flammable and corrosive substances, oxidizing agents, and toxic chemicals. The company, which employs 70, is designated by the Tianjin Maritime Safety Administration (天津海事局) as an approved agent for handling these hazardous chemicals at the port, and its operating license was renewed two months prior to the explosions. Its 46,000-square-metre (500,000 sq ft) site contains multiple warehouses for hazardous goods, a fire pump and a fire pond.

The warehouse building, owned by Ruihai Logistics, is recorded in a 2014 government document as being a hazardous chemical storage facility for calcium carbide, sodium nitrate, and potassium nitrate. Safety regulations requiring that public buildings and facilities should be at least 1 kilometre away were not followed, and local inhabitants were unaware of the danger. The authorities stated that poor record keeping, damage to the office facilities and "major discrepancies" with customs meant that they were unable to identify the substances stored. State media revealed that Ruihai had only received its authorisation to handle dangerous chemicals less than two months earlier, meaning that it had been operating illegally from October 2014, when its temporary license had expired, to June 2015.

Explosions

The first reports of a fire at a warehouse in the Binhai New Area began coming in at around 22:50 local time (14:50 UTC) on 12 August. The first responders were unable to keep the fire from spreading. Firefighters who first arrived on the scene proceeded to douse the fire with water as they were unaware that dangerous chemicals were stored on the site, thereby setting in motion a series of more violent chemical reactions.

At around 23:30 (15:30 UTC), the first explosion occurred and registered as a magnitude 2.3 earthquake. Initial reports estimate that the first explosion was equivalent to 3 tonnes of TNT. Shortly after, a second more powerful one occurred, causing most of the damage and injuries with shock-waves felt many kilometres away. The second explosion has been estimated to be equivalent to 21 tonnes of TNT. The resulting fireballs reached hundreds of meters high.

Around 11:40 (03:40 UTC) on 15 August, a series of eight explosions occurred in the port as fire from the original blasts continued to spread.

The scale of the explosions was large enough to be photographed from space by the Japanese satellite Himawari.

Casualties

As of 17 August 2015, sources reported 114 confirmed deaths. Seventy people, mostly firefighters, remain missing.

Several communities with around 5,600 inhabitants are known to exist within 1 km of the plant, the closest being only 600 m away. Neither the developers nor the buyers were aware of the latent dangers of the activities at the nearby site. According to the Tianjin government, more than 700 people were injured by the explosion, many with extensive injuries, mostly from burns and explosive blast injuries. Over a thousand firefighters were on scene, 21 of whom have died. Contact was lost with 36 firefighters, but one survivor was found on the morning of 14 August, a 19-year-old named Zhou Ti (周倜). The incident is reported to be the deadliest for Chinese firefighters since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Damage

Damaged car and building
Damaged buses
Damaged building

Photographs and videos showed extensive destruction in and around the warehouse compound, with a massive crater at the blast site. The buildings of seven more surrounding logistics companies were destroyed, and large quantities of intermodal container stacks have been toppled and thrown by the forces of the explosions. More than eight thousand new cars from Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, Renault, and Toyota, parked in lots located near the blast site, have been largely burned as a result of the initial explosions.

Apartment blocks 2 km (1.2 mi) from the site sustained shattered glass, loss of roof tiles and damage to ceilings – with 17,000 units being affected. Nearby Donghai Road Station suffered severe damage as a result of the explosions and is closed indefinitely, as has the rest of Line 9 of the Tianjin Metro since 13 August. A Japanese department store four kilometres away reported damage to walls and ceilings. The explosions also affected the National Supercomputing Center of Tianjin several kilometres away, knocking out windows and causing some internal ceilings to collapse; the supercomputer itself was not damaged.

Cause

It is not known what chemicals were being stored at the site. In addition to vast quantities of sodium cyanide and calcium carbide, 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and 500 tonnes of potassium nitrate were found, according to local reports. On 17 August, the deputy director of the public security bureau's fire department told CCTV:

Over 40 kinds of hazardous chemicals . As far as we know, there were ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate. According to what we know so far, all together there should have been around 3,000 tonnes.

Ammonium nitrate, which is principally used in manufacturing fertilizer, has been implicated in a number of other fatal industrial explosions. A fire department spokesman confirmed that firefighters had used water in combating the initial fire, which may have led to water being sprayed on calcium carbide, releasing the highly volatile gas acetylene. This may have detonated the ammonium nitrate.

The Chinese public security minister threatened to severely punish those found to be responsible for the explosions. In a HKFP report it was suggested by Willy Lam, professor at CUHK and senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, that the "very strange" delay of four days in the official visit of Premier Li Keqiang, despite the short distance from Beijing, revealed "a division among the leadership on who should be the fall guy."

Pollution

Heavy smoke

At least 700 tonnes of highly toxic sodium cyanide was stored at the site – 70 times the legal limit. Sodium cyanide leakage has been reported in the sewer. On 13 August, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, all of which are toxic, were detected within 500 m (1,600 ft) of the origin of the explosion, but the levels conformed with the national standards. The government maintained that gases were undetectable 2 km (1.2 mi) from the site during initial testing on 14 August.

Aftermath and emergency response

Two security inspectors wearing respirators near the barricade tape of the scene

The morning following the explosion military personnel began to arrive in Tianjin to help with the search and recovery efforts. Extra equipment, such as bulldozers, was brought in to help with the clean-up operation. Over 200 nuclear and biochemical experts, including a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency, began arriving in Tianjin to assess the health risks from the chemicals being released into the atmosphere. Government personnel set up twelve temporary monitoring stations near the blast site with above normal levels of "harmful air pollutants" being detected. A nearby drainage outlet was also closed, and water quality tested.

At 14:30 (06:30 UTC) on 13 August, firefighting was suspended due to the uncertainty of the content and quantity of hazardous materials being stored on site. A team of over 200 chemical specialists was deployed to the site to assess the hazardous materials on site and dangers to the environment, and to determine the best way to put out the remaining fires and proceed with search and rescue and clean-up operations.

On 13 August, rescue personnel were dispatched in an attempt to remove the 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide believed to be stored at the site, with hydrogen peroxide being prepared to neutralise the chemicals. Daily press conferences were organised. A press conference organised by local officials held on 14 August came to an abrupt end when a journalist began asking questions as to why such dangerous chemicals were stockpiled so near to housing estates.

Initially, more than 3,500 area residents were staying in temporary shelters, however, as of 15 August, this number has grown to more than 6,000. The government issued an evacuation order over concerns of further explosions; not all residents complied.

Several hours after the initial blast, at 3:30 am on 13 August, Tianjin mayor and acting Communist Party Secretary Huang Xingguo arrived at TEDA Hospital to visit injured victims. Shortly thereafter, Guo Shengkun, the Minister of Public Security, visited the blast site in Tianjin and called for all-out efforts to save lives. The next few days saw more senior officials visit the explosion site, including Vice-Premier Liu Yandong, Vice-Premier Ma Kai, and Premier Li Keqiang accompanied by State Councilor Yang Jing. At the press conferences, the district governor of Binhai New Area addressed the press.

On 15 August, local authorities ordered the evacuation of residents within a 3 km (1.9 mi) radius of the blast site, prompted by the threat of "toxic substances", including sodium cyanide.

The State Council ordered inspections of all businesses using dangerous chemicals and explosives across the country.

Reactions

Angry local residents seeking compensation protested in front of the venue of the daily press conference; they were joined by distraught families of missing firefighters who clashed with police.

There was criticism locally, with the official People's Daily expressing dismay at local officials' lack of candour and their use of bureaucratic jargon. In addition, the Global Times remarked on the inadequacy of emergency response and the reluctance of high-ranking officials to answer the public's questions and address their concerns until four days after the blasts. The People’s Daily acknowledged that public skepticism of the reported death toll was fueling rampant rumours; there was also disquiet over the emergency assistance provided and the way the aftermath was being handled.

See also

References

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