China investigates cause of blasts at Tianjin port, firms assess damage

Greenpeace said exposure or skin contact with the hazardous materials will put firefighters and rescue workers at risk.

Firefighters’ role questioned There has been speculation that firefighters who arrived on the scene after the first explosion may have contributed to a second and more serious blast by using water to try to douse the flames.

The authorities are still trying to determine what caused the huge explosions in an industrial area of the port city of Tianjin, where some fires have continued to burn.

A young firefighter has been recovered from the rubble of the massive, catastrophic detonation in a Chinese port city.

Fresh blasts have been reported at the Tianjin site which was earlier rocked by explosions at a chemical warehouse killing dozens.

“There was no chance to escape, and that’s why the casualties were so severe”, he said.

“Nobody has told us anything, we’re in the dark, there is no news at all”, screamed one middle-aged woman, as she was dragged away by security personnel.

Police and military personnel manned checkpoints on roads leading to the blast sites, and helicopters were seen hovering in the overcast sky. “I covered my head and don’t know what happened after that”.

In the face of aggressive government attempts to control the flow of news about the disaster, there was rampant Internet speculation about the owners of Ruihai global Logistics, the company that owns the warehouse where the blast occurred, and whether they might be connected to senior government leaders.

Ltd, which operates the warehouse, is licensed to store an array of risky chemicals, including flammable gas and liquid, as well as other hazardous chemicals, such as potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate and sodium cyanide, calcium silicate and Toluene Diisocyanate. Authorities have assured residents of Tianjin that the city’s air and seawater has not been contaminated by unsafe chemicals from an explosion on Wednesday night. The warehouse leveled in the blast was roughly five times the size of a large warehouse. Greenpeace, citing information from Tianjin Tanggu Environmental Monitoring Station, said the company also stored calcium carbide in addition to the chemicals reported.

Zhou said further firefighting efforts must go slowly because of the potentially complex mix of chemicals at the site.

But Sodium cyanide, a highly toxic chemical that can kill humans rapidly, was one of them, Gao said.

A rescued man receives medical treatment at a hospital of the People’s Liberation Army in Tianjin, north China, August 15, 2015. The Tianjin Economic Development Area has attracted foreign investors including Motorola, Toyota, Samsung and Novozymes.

Indian officials said one Indian employee of commercial firm was among the injured and his condition was stable.