Thread: China blasts: Casualties in Tianjin port city explosions

One Week On, China Struggles With Tianjin Blast Pollution Cleanup

Rescue teams and environmental experts struggled amid rain on Tuesday to clean up thousands of tons of water polluted by last week's massive explosions in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, while the city mourned the 114 people known to have died in the disaster.

Tens of thousands of tons of contaminated water is believed to remain at the warehouse and container area that were ripped apart by fires and two huge explosions, while the current downpour could make decontamination still harder, official media reported.

Water tested at eight of the 40 water monitoring stations near the blast area were found to contain excessive amounts of cyanide, with some samples containing 28.4 times more than the standard, Tianjin's chief environmental protection engineer Bao Jingling was quoted as saying.

Officials have estimated that hundreds of tons of toxic sodium cyanide were stored near the blast site, and construction teams are using a cofferdam to prevent contaminated rainwater from running off the site, state news agency Xinhua reported.

There are also fears that rain might set off chemical reactions with the scattered chemicals and release toxic gases, Bao said.

A Tianjin resident surnamed Zhao told RFA she was afraid to go outside, for fear of pollution.

"Just think what could happen when the rain hits those dangerous chemicals; a lot of them are all over the ground," Zhao said. "I have shut tight the windows and I don't open the door much."

"If there is poison in the air, a face mask is no use; I saw that on social media," she said. "If you breathe it in, you can get a chronic disease."

"We're not going out now, and anyone who gets rained on comes back and takes a shower as soon as they can; that's all we are thinking about right now," Zhao said.

Unaware of risk

According to official figures, 114 people died in the disaster, while 57 remain missing after two huge explosions ripped through the Tanggu district of the port just before midnight on Aug. 12.

Memorial ceremonies marking the seventh day since the deaths of the 114 people were attended by officials in Tianjin, while the city was decked out in white mourning flowers and echoed with sirens on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, local residents are still in shock at the scale of the potential hazards to their lives and health.

"Nobody thought that they would put dangerous chemicals so close to a residential area," a resident of Tanggu told RFA on Tuesday.

"I'm pretty worried now," he said.

A resident surnamed Wang said he had no idea how hazardous the warehouse area could be.

"I didn't realize how very dangerous this was until this happened," Wang said. "There was a bomb right next to me."

He said the blast had shaken up people who might otherwise have been apathetic about the risk.

"We want to be able to supervise what the government is doing ... and we want to live in an environment that is guaranteed safe. But it's not we who decides these things," Wang said.

"We have no power to pursue them, and if we start to criticize the government, or blow the whistle on them, then they will treat us like the enemy," he said.

"All we can do is accept orders from on high."

Clampdown on reporting

The ruling Chinese Communist Party has clamped down on reporting of the disaster, ordering state-run media to stick to officially approved news stories, deleting tweets, and shuttering social media accounts deemed to be "spreading rumors" about the Tianjin explosions.

According to David Bandurski, researcher at the Hong Kong University's China Media Project, some 35 million people were watching the Twitter-like hashtag #Tianjinexplosion on Sina Weibo as the tragedy unfolded and citizens posted dramatic and often graphic images of the devastation on the ground.

"The primary objective of China’s leadership can be summed up in a single phrase: 'Do not do reports of a reflective nature,'" Bandurski wrote in an article on Medium.com.

While many Chinese reporters have risked life and limb to get closer to the story, any reporting that addresses who is responsible, why the disaster occurred, and how safety measures failed is off limits, Bandurski said.

A Tanggu resident surnamed Chen said that people were completely unaware they were living so close to such dangerous chemicals.

"What exactly went on with these explosions? Why were such dangerous goods held there?" Chen said.

"We had to run for our lives, and we escaped, but we were nearly finished," he said. "Our apartment complex and our building has collapsed."

"But for every question asked, they just say three 'don't knows'. It doesn't matter who you ask."

"This was the government's job, and it didn't do its job. They are just passing the buck, acting irresponsibly. How could this happen?"

Warehouse executives held

Currently, the official narrative appears to be focusing on the bosses at warehouse owner Ruihai Logistics and local municipal officials as mainly to blame for the disaster.

Police are holding 10 Ruihai executives, including the CEO, while the head of the national work safety watchdog Yang Dongliang has been put under internal party investigation for "severe discipline violations."

Relatives of the missing said they still haven't had any detailed news of their loved ones' fate.

"They just said they'll inform us as soon as they have news," the sister of missing man Liu Tianlong told RFA.

"We asked for a meeting but they didn't do that."

One Week On, China Struggles With Tianjin Blast Pollution Cleanup

Originally Posted by Troy

It would be quite the tragedy if the firefighters were not aware of the type of chemicals and ended up pouring fuel onto the fire, so to speak.

The youtube footage I saw of the second explosion looked to be enough to wake the dead...

... but storing hazardous chemicals in a populated area and next to eachother? Time the Chinese cleaned up their act before they end up paying for it again.

I have a feeling that the root case of this explosion is simply one of ignoring every single lesson learned in the west from industrial accidents over the last 150 years. Gross negligence comes to mind

Cyanide in China's Blast-Affected Water 356 Times Safe Levels


An aerial view of a large hole in the ground in the aftermath of a huge explosion that rocked the port city of Tianjin. Explosions and a fireball at a chemical warehouse killed at least 114 people in the north-eastern Chinese port city last week. EPA


BEIJING (DPA) - Water near the site of last week's fatal warehouse blasts in China contains cyanide levels that are 356 times the national standard, the Environmental Protection Ministry said Thursday.

New tests have found that the environmental impact of the August 12 explosions, which killed 114 people in Tianjin, is much more serious than authorities had previously reported.

The water outside the immediate area of the blast site at a chemical storage warehouse in the northern port city also contained levels of cyanide up to 8.2 times national safety standards, the ministry said.

Its findings differed from State Oceanic Administration statements carried by state media earlier Thursday saying there were only "minute traces" of cyanide in water near the blast site.

Sodium cyanide is highly toxic and in contact with water releases hydrogen cyanide gas, which is toxic and flammable.

Authorities will speed up treatment of contaminated water and will discharge the water only after it is safe, said Tian Weiyong, head of Ministry of Environmental Protection's emergency response centre.

Seventy-three stations in a 5-square-kilometre area have been set up to detect and treat soil contamination, Tian said.

Tian rejected rumours that the government's air quality reports had been doctored.

Tianjin's local government also said Thursday that it would buy back apartments damaged in the massive blasts pending surveys of the buildings.

The blasts caused varying degrees of damage to 17,000 residences, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Cyanide in China's Blast-Affected Water 356 Times Safe Levels

China Holds 12, Blames Local Officials And Companies For Tianjin Blasts



Authorities in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin have arrested 12 people for "abuse of power" and "dereliction of duty" in connection with massive and fatal explosions at a hazardous chemicals warehouse that left at least 145 dead earlier this month.

China's ministry of public security in Beijing confirmed that police have formally arrested Yu Xuewei, chairman of Tianjin International Ruihai Logistics Co., which owns the ill-fated warehouse and the company's vice-chairman Dong Shexuan.

Zeng Fanqiang, "an employee with a safety evaluation firm suspected of illegally helping Ruihai acquire safety evaluation papers," was also named among the 12, the official Xinhua news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

All detainees are suspected of illegally storing dangerous materials, and Ruihai Logistics' general manager Zhi Feng and his deputy Shang Qingsen are under "residential surveillance," it said.

The move means a trial is now highly likely.

The ministry said it blames local government departments, including transportation management authorities, production safety regulatory agencies, and land and resources authorities, for the blasts, which devastated buildings up to three kilometers away and sent huge fireballs, followed by clouds of toxic cyanide gas belching into the air.

"Customs personnel of the Tianjin Customs District were found to have been slack and irresponsible in supervising the illegal dangerous chemical business run by Ruihai," the ministry said.

"The personnel involved are also suspected of illegally issuing customs clearing permits to the company and allowing it to carry out illegal business activities," it said.

Meanwhile, Tianjin Port had failed to respond to the potential safety risks and to the "illegal business" being carried out at Ruihai, the statement said.

China's propaganda ministry has ordered official media and news websites not to carry out any independent reporting into the Tianjin disaster, or its causes.

Some 700 tons of sodium cyanide was stored at the warehouse, which was destroyed when the blasts ripped through the area late on Aug. 12 as firefighters struggled to bring a blaze under control, leaving the surrounding area an ashen wasteland.

Transportation official investigated

Meanwhile, China's state prosecution service said it is investigating senior transportation ministry official Wang Jinwen for suspected abuse of power, as well as city transportation chief Wu Dai, and Zheng Qingyue, president of Tianjin Port (Group) Co., official media reported on Thursday.

more China Holds 12, Blames Local Officials And Companies For Tianjin Blasts

Tianjin Plan to Remake Blast Site Into Park Is Criticized



A plan in Tianjin, China, to turn the site of last month's deadly warehouse explosions into an “eco-park” is drawing ridicule from local residents and online commentators.

Tianjin authorities asked for public opinion on the plan for a 24-hectare park that will include a monument to remember the dead, as well as a primary school and kindergarten nearby.

The proposal, which comes just a few weeks after the blasts, has generated critical comments online from people who question turning one of China's most notorious chemical disaster zones into a recreation area and school zone.

Opposition rises

“A primary school? And a kindergarten? Why not listen to the public opinion and relocate the city hall there,” wrote a use of social media site Weibo. Another used even harsher words, “Want to cover up the truth? We demand the immediate release of investigation findings.”

more Tianjin Plan to Remake Blast Site Into Park Is Criticized

China, Rocked by Fresh Blasts, Jails 49 Over Tianjin Disaster

As China jailed 49 people this week in connection with massive explosions in August 2015, the country was rocked by two further blasts at chemical facilities in the same week.

Courts in the northern port city of Tianjin handed down jail terms to 49 people, including managers and employees at Ruihai Logistics where the blast took place, and 25 government officials.

At least 165 people died and hundreds more were injured in the blasts, which ripped through the city's warehouse and residential districts on Aug. 12, 2015, shattering windows up to five kilometers away and sending a cloud of toxic fumes into the sky.

The Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court handed a suspended death sentence to Ruihai Logistics chairman Yu Xuewei, after finding him guilty of bribing port administration officials with cash and goods worth 157,500 yuan (U.S.$23,333) for a hazardous chemicals license.

Yu was convicted of illegal storage of hazardous materials, illegal business operations, causing incidents involving hazardous materials, and bribery, and also ordered to pay a fine of 700,000 yuan.

His deputies and senior colleagues at Ruihai Logistics were handed jail terms ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment, while lower-ranking employees were given sentences of 3-10 years in prison.

"All suspects agreed with the verdicts and expressed remorse," state news agency Xinhua reported, adding that the disaster did damage worth 6.87 billion yuan (U.S.$1.01 billion).

The court ruled that the blasts were an accident with "extraordinary seriousness," with Ruihai Logistics bearing the main responsibility, the report said.

"The company ignored industrial safety rules and violated municipal district planning by illegally setting up a hazardous materials storage yard. Management was chaotic, and safety problems persisted," it quoted the court judgement as saying.


Wide dereliction of duty

The court also found that officials of government agencies including transportation, ports, customs, industrial safety, city planning, and maritime affairs were guilty of "dereliction of duty and abuse of power," Xinhua said.

Twenty-five officials, who included former Tianjin city transportation chief Wu Dai, were handed jail terms of between three and seven years.

Meanwhile, Tianjin Zhongbin Haisheng, a company that provided counterfeit safety evaluation papers to Ruihai Logistics, was also named a responsible party, and 11 of its employees jailed.

A victim of the blast surnamed Ma said he thought the fine of 700,000 yuan was a little low.

"I think for such a major disaster he should have been ordered to pay five million yuan," Ma said.

A relative of a victim surnamed Yang said the government had done what it could, but that could never be enough for victims' families.

"We've received [compensation]. We were paid at the time, and it was enough in a material sense," Yang said. "But psychologically, the scars will always be there; they'll never go away."

As the courts were deliberating their sentences, two more massive blasts hit Liu'an city in the eastern province of Anhui and Zibo in the eastern province of Shandong on Tuesday and Wednesday.


Munitions plant blast

Five people were killed and at least nine injured in Zhoucun district of Shandong's Zibo city on Wednesday after an explosion in an ammonia tank at the Zhoucun Jiazhou Power Co, local authorities said via social media.

An employee who answered the phone at the Zibo municipal government offices on Wednesday confirmed the incident, but gave no details.

"Investigations are in progress," the official said.

And reports said 55 people were in a workshop belonging to the Qinjiaqiao Munitions Factory in Liu'an on Tuesday when a huge blast occurred, with only five workers emerging alive.

A local resident told RFA that the explosion had felt "like an earthquake."

"When the blast went off, I was in Shucheng county town," the resident said. "It felt to me like an earthquake."

The district is home to four or five munitions factories, he said. "They're all around here, in every direction," he said. "They've never [exploded] before."

An employee who answered the phone at the Tangshu Industrial Park where the reported blast took place declined to comment, however.

Environmental activist Wu Lihong said there are still no indications that safety standards are improving in China as a result of lessons learned in Tianjin, however.

"That will be very difficult because the problems are inherent in the system, and there's no way to change that," Wu told RFA. "If they implemented the law properly, then we wouldn't see all this pollution, year in, year out."

"If the system doesn't change, you forget about the rest of it."

China, Rocked by Fresh Blasts, Jails 49 Over Tianjin Disaster