China blast warehouse on fire again

Major explosions in the Chinese city of Tianjin on Wednesday evening has grabbed the world’s attention for the past couple of days as news of its cause, casualties, and possible government negligence continues to unfold. Majority were caught off guard by the second one, which went off 30 seconds later. That left 17 people to death apart from injuring more than hundreds. Emergency crews are still working to locate missing people; 12 firefighters are among the dead, and more remain unaccounted for. An additional 13 firefighters are missing, officials said.

The blasts, which knocked down walls in a two kilometer radius, shattered windows and injured residents far away. Those pictures also show how the buildings have collapsed and parked cars were damaged. More than 6,000 people have been relocated over contamination concerns; the warehouse contained risky chemicals.

Tianjin local government has more than a dozen sites dedicated to measuring and reporting on the air quality around the city, at least five sites are also responsible for checking on the city’s water supply.

Authorities have struggled to completely extinguish the blaze, which was still smoldering on Friday morning, and determine exactly what was in the storage facility.

The New York Times reports that Tianjin police say the explosion occurred at a “hazardous cargo” warehouse and that a “top official” of the company that owns the warehouse, Rui Hai worldwide Logistics, has been apprehended “for questioning”. According to People’s Daily, at least 18 others are listed as missing and 70 others are in critical condition.

The air near the site was below a safe standard on Friday evening, forcing firefighters and one command headquarter to temporarily vacate the site.

Meanwhile authorities moved forward gingerly in dealing with a fire still smouldering amid potentially unsafe chemicals.

Authorities have only released limited information about the accident, a criticism often levelled at Chinese officials in the aftermath of disasters, and restricted discussion of it online.

“We’re not sure what chemicals they were”, said Gao Huaiyou, Tianjin’s deputy director of work safety. 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.

After a team of 217 military specialists in nuclear and biochemical materials was deployed to Tianjin on Thursday, authorities told reporters the following day that the risky chemicals at the warehouse could not be determined at the moment.