Firefighter rescued from rubble in China

The death toll could have been higher had the explosions occurred during the day, when more people would have been working in the area.

The explosion that left a devastated industrial landscape of incinerated cars, toppled shipping containers and burnt-out buildings, was even being picked up by a Japanese weather satellite, and images showed walls of flame enveloping buildings and rank after rank of gutted cars at an import facility.

The head of Tianjin’s environmental protection bureau, Wen Wurui, said pollution levels were being monitored. “We’re now doing all we can to rescue the missing”. They also have been publicly reticent about suspicions that firefighters may have sparked the explosions by spraying water on volatile chemicals.

What chemicals did the warehouse store?

The housing development’s windows were shattered and the side facing the explosions singed.

More than 3,500 residents made homeless by the blasts spent the night in temporary shelters. “I’m doing this for my child”.

According to Chinese media, the blast happened after a shipment of explosives detonated in a warehouse.

The survivor, a firefighter, had been pulled from the ruins of a warehouse, officials said. Its website says the company is authorized to handle chemicals ranging from flammable gases and liquids, including compressed natural gas and ethyl acetate, to chemicals that explode on contact with water, including sodium cyanide and calcium carbide.

However, the warehouse was a transit point and authorities do not have a clear picture of what was there at the time of the blasts.

Gao Huaiyou, deputy director of Tianjin’s work safety watchdog, told reporters that there were major discrepancies between the accounts of company managers and customs officials.

Chinese officials sent chemical and biological experts to the scene, and 1,000 firefighters were still there on Friday, pouring foam and sand on lingering hotspots, according to authorities.

“Many types of different materials with different characteristics are mixed together and could at any time result in a chemical reaction or explosion”, Zhou said.

“I think it’s his strong will which helped him to hold on”, Zhang Dapeng, the chief of staff of the Bonded Zone Branch of the Tianjin Firefighting Corps said Friday.

“Saddened to hear about the Tianjin blasts”.

But officials said the site had been sealed off and, as far as they knew, any contaminants were contained in that location.

Tianjin is located about 120 kilometres south-east of Beijing and is home to 15.2 million people. The Tianjin Economic Development Area has attracted foreign investors including Motorola, Toyota, Samsung and Novozymes.

At least 700 individuals were debilitated, more than 71 critically, the Tianjin authorities said on their Weibo microblog, and to discover the endorsed Xinhua information company said couple of fires remained as using.

How many lives did the explosions claim?