Tianjin Explosion kills 50

TBryant · Aug 13, 2015

Explosion in China kills 50 people. Crazy looking explosion, no accounting for it yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZDyVa1zaNU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7FXeaahRsg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C72rTMvmAr8

Haven't heard much about this from US media. Reports from China mention nothing about finding a culpable party, or even providing any reason an explosion of this magnitude happened on the port of this busy industrial city. Other than "dangerous chemicals"; duh?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/13/us-china-blast-idUSKCN0QH2B220150813

waltky · Sep 11, 2015

Firefighters families receive compensation for Tianjin explosions...

Big payouts handed to Tianjin firefighters families
Fri, Sep 11, 2015 - China is to give unusually large payouts to the families of firefighters killed in giant explosions in Tianjin last month, local media reported, after the disaster raised questions over whether the young mens training was inadequate.

Each family is to receive 2.3 million yuan (US$360,000) in compensation, a payment that includes extra money for martyrdom, the Beijing News reported late on Wednesday. The death toll from a series of explosions on Aug. 12 rose to 164 yesterday, Tianjin authorities said, 97 of them firefighters. Nine people are still missing.

The compensation amount is more than double the US$145,000 given to the families of each of the victims of a 2011 train crash outside the city of Wenzhou. Of the 2.3 million yuan, 940,000 yuan is a martyrdom payment, while most of the rest is 30 times the average annual urban salary, for lost income due to death.

The standard compensation for accident victims in China is 20 times the average salary. The relatively large amount might be an attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to quell criticism after questions were raised over whether poorly trained firefighters could have contributed to the detonations in Tianjin.

Reports said emergency workers responding to a blaze at a hazardous goods storage facility could have sprayed water over calcium carbide, listed as being at the site. The two substances react to produce highly combustible acetylene gas. Nearly all of Chinas firefighters are contract laborers young, poor men from the countryside, who receive limited training, provoking public concern over the professionalism and capabilities of the service.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2015/09/11/2003627478
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Doug_yvr · Sep 11, 2015

TBryant said: ↑

Haven't heard much about this from US media. Reports from China mention nothing about finding a culpable party, or even providing any reason an explosion of this magnitude happened on the port of this busy industrial city. Other than "dangerous chemicals"; duh?
Click to expand...

This was all over the news at the time it happened. A large number of volatile chemical stored without permit. The owners have been arrested.

waltky · Sep 11, 2015

Tianjin explosion aftermath...

Final death toll set at 173 in China warehouse explosion
Sep 11,`15 -- Chinese authorities say they've ended the search for the remaining missing in a massive chemical warehouse explosion last month. The move sets the final death toll at 173 in China's worst industrial disaster in years.

The announcement on the Tianjin city government's microblog says there is no hope of finding eight persons still unaccounted for. It says the court is now starting the process of issuing death certificates.

The eight include five firefighters, underscoring the explosion's status as the worst ever disaster for Chinese first responders, more than 100 of whom were killed.

Investigations into the Aug. 12 blasts at the Ruihai International Logistics warehouses showed they located closer to homes than permitted, and stored much more hazardous material than authorized, including 700 tons of highly toxic sodium cyanide.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-09-11-23-02-34
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waltky · Oct 13, 2015

New blast in Tianjin...

New warehouse blast hits Tianjin: Authorities
Oct 13, 2015: A warehouse explosion hit the Chinese port of Tianjin just two months after a massive blast in the city left more than 160 dead, officials said on Tuesday.

No-one appeared to have been killed by the blast on Monday evening at a warehouse storing alcohol and other chemicals, district officials said online. Explosions are common in China, where safety standards are often lax. At the weekend 17 people were killed in Anhui province when a gas canister blew up at a restaurant. By the early hours of Tuesday morning the Tianjin fire had been put out and no casualties had yet been reported, officials in the city's Beichen district said on social media.

Authorities say a total of 165 people died in massive explosions at a chemical storage facility that devastated a swathe of the northern port in August. Nearly 100 firefighters were among the dead, in China's worst industrial accident in more than a decade. Because of its location, the latest explosion became a trending topic early Tuesday on Sina Weibo - a microblogging service similar to Twitter - with users posting what they said were images of the blast. Local authorities said on Sina Weibo that the blast was caused by a company that had illegally rented a warehouse to store chemicals.

The facility had 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds) of alcohol, in close proximity to 1,000 kilograms of acetic acid, used to make plastics, it said. They added that air pollution measurements were within safe levels and the incident posed no risks to health. The August explosions and their aftermath raised a host of questions in China about industrial safety, and poor firefighter training. State media said that well-connected company executives had illegally flouted residential zoning regulations to set up their chemical storage facility.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...-Tianjin-Authorities/articleshow/49332453.cms
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DonRumataEstorsky · Oct 13, 2015

What do you think about this?
[video=youtube;3loeHDHHegk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3loeHDHHegk[/video]

waltky · Apr 23, 2016

Another chemical warehouse explosion in China...

Explosion rips through Chinese chemical warehouse
April 22, 2016 - A massive plume of smoke has erupted after an explosion occurred at a warehouse with chemical and fuel products in China.

A warehouse storing chemicals and fuel exploded and caught fire in the eastern Chinese city of Jingjiang on Friday, the local government and media reports said, but the blaze was under control with no casualties. The blast recalled huge explosions caused by improper storage of chemicals in the northern city of Tianjin last August, when at least 165 people were killed and fears were raised of toxic contamination.

Blaze triggers huge blast at port in Jingjiang

The latest accident was at the premises of a company called Jiangsu Deqiao Storage, which is authorised to keep hazardous chemicals, reports said. The Jingjiang government said on its verified microblog that the fire was under control with no deaths or injuries. One photo posted online showed dark clouds of smoke with the fire still burning amid what appeared to be storage tanks.

The Jingjiang government statement said activity near the site had returned to normal. Industrial accidents are common in China where safety standards are often lax. But the massive blast in Tianjin sparked widespread anger over a perceived lack of transparency by officials about its causes and environmental impact.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/04/22/explosion-rips-through-chinese-chemical-warehouse.html
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See also:

Chemical warehouse explosion in China
April 22, 2016 - A MASSIVE plume of smoke has erupted after an explosion occurred at a warehouse with chemical and fuel products in China.

A warehouse storing chemicals and fuel exploded and caught fire in the eastern Chinese city of Jingjiang on Friday, the local government and media reports said, but the blaze was under control with no casualties. The blast recalled huge explosions caused by improper storage of chemicals in the northern city of Tianjin last August, when at least 165 people were killed and fears were raised of toxic contamination. The latest accident was at the premises of a company called Jiangsu Deqiao Storage, which is authorised to keep hazardous chemicals, reports said.

A massive explosion has occurred in China at a warehouse.

The Jingjiang government said on its verified microblog that the fire was under control with no deaths or injuries. One photo posted online showed dark clouds of smoke with the fire still burning amid what appeared to be storage tanks.

The Jingjiang government statement said activity near the site had returned to normal. Industrial accidents are common in China where safety standards are often lax. But the massive blast in Tianjin sparked widespread anger over a perceived lack of transparency by officials about its causes and environmental impact.

http://www.news.com.au/world/asia/c...a/news-story/6cec50c69260b43979211c93541c3c9b
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waltky · Aug 13, 2016

Last year's Tianjin chemical explosion...

Remembering Tianjin
Thu, 11 Aug 2016 - China may want muted commemorations to mark the first anniversary of the massive chemical blast in Tianjin that killed 173 people, but not everyone agrees, reports John Sudworth.

Almost anywhere else in the world the anniversary of a disaster of this magnitude would present a moment of national soul-searching. But not in China. While a memorial service to some of the dead firefighters is being held in the city of Tianjin, elsewhere the tributes are being muted. The Communist Party-controlled media is being told what it can and cannot say and some survivors, as well as family members of the dead, are being warned not to speak to the foreign press. But 23-year-old Zhang Mengfan won't stay quiet. "On this anniversary there should be a way for the public to know what happened," he tells me. "I don't want silence." On 12 August last year, Mr Zhang was a radio operator with a military fire brigade, stationed just a kilometre from the epicentre of the explosions. "The call came in at 10:53 that night and we started to despatch my teammates," he says. "It would have taken them 10 minutes to get to the scene."

Other crews from elsewhere in the city were also arriving to tackle the large fire in a chemical storage depot. All of them would have been oblivious to the fact that large quantities of volatile and toxic substances were being illegally stored, way beyond permitted amounts and without proper management. The fire had started when a batch of nitrocellulose - a chemical used in nail polish - had been allowed to dry out and then ignited in the summer heat. It then spread to a huge stockpile - 800 tonnes - of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The resulting explosions shattered the windows and brought the roof in at the fire station where Zhang Mengfan was waiting by the radio for reports from the scene. Those reports never came in. "When I saw the mushroom cloud I fell into a state of desperation," he tells me. "I knew what it would mean for my friends."

Tianjin blast
August 2015

173 People dead or missing

304 buildings damaged

12,428 cars destroyed

$1.1bn in economic losses

State Council

Of the 26 firefighters sent to the blaze from his unit that night, eight never came back. Many of the others suffered serious burns and other injuries. The biggest of the two large explosions was measured as a seismic event, with a blast wave that was felt many kilometres away. The total cost of the damage was put at more than $1bn, including the 300-plus buildings that were destroyed. A total of 173 people lost their lives - 104 of them firefighters. Eight bodies have never been found. An official government enquiry has laid the blame squarely at the corruption, political connections and official collusion that allowed corners to be cut and safety systems to be overridden. The storage depot should never have been built so close to residential buildings in the first place. More than 100 officials and company executives are facing some kind of disciplinary or criminal investigation.

So while the government can point to the progress that has been made - the thousands of homes repaired and the residents compensated - those lingering sensitivities remain. The disaster has exposed the cracks in a system where rapid economic growth is a priority and the lack of independent oversight is a fact of life. The bravery and sense of duty that night cannot be doubted and yet alongside the image of the firefighter as hero, there is the other uncomfortable picture. That of the firefighter as victim, sent without proper knowledge into an avoidable, man-made catastrophe. Zhang Mengfan has now left the fire service but will attend the memorial service in Tianjin. He will be carrying in his heart a message for his dead comrades. "What I want to tell them most is this: I've been to visit your parents and they are fine. Leave your parents to me. I am a member of your family now. I will fulfil your filial duty."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-37019025
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