Death toll in Chinese explosions rises to 104, state media says

The explosions have disrupted the flow of cars, oil, iron ore and other items through the world’s 10th largest port.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of a 1.8-mile zone around the Chinese port city of Tianjin on Saturday as fresh explosions were heard and fires continued to rage – and the death toll rose to 104.

The death toll in the ensuing inferno included at least 21 firefighters – making the disaster the deadliest for Chinese firefighters in more than six decades.

A total of 720 people were injured in the disaster in Tianjin, a key port and petrochemical hub east of Beijing.

Rescuers also found an additional survivor Saturday as authorities evacuated much of the area to clean up dangerous chemical contamination. But the contamination was no longer detected later Saturday, the report said.

China on Friday defended the work of firefighters who initially hosed water on a blaze in a warehouse storing volatile chemicals, a response foreign experts said could have contributed to the explosions. Many of them were apparently killed by a series of explosions that went off 40 minutes after the fire was reported. His identity was not immediately known. Fooage showed the 56-year-old man being carried out on a sketcher by a group of soldiers wearing gas masks.

Measures have been taken to prevent secondary disasters, such as inviting sodium cyanide producing enterprises to help at the site, using hydrogen peroxide to reduce the amount of sodium cyanide, sending a special taskforce to locate and measure the area contaminated by sodium cyanide, and prevent its spreading in sewage.

Police and military personnel manned checkpoints on roads leading to the blast sites, and helicopters were seen hovering in the overcast sky.

Today’s exclusion zone was brought in as angry relatives of around 25 missing firefighters stormed a government news conference, demanding information on their loved ones.

“We have gone to each and every hospital by ourselves and not found them”, said Wang Baoxia, whose elder brother is missing. “Not even one”. “The land was near normal logistics warehouses when we acquired it in April 2010”, the company said in an emailed statement. “He just turned 18”.

Questions about whether firefighters may have sparked the blasts have been circulating in the Chinese media. “They were caught off guard, so the casualties are grave”, Zhou said. “We are extremely worried”, she said. Zhou Tian and Zhou Ti are not related.

Li Yonghan, a doctor at Teda Hospital, called Zhou’s survival “miraculous” and said Zhou escaped death mainly because he was covered by his fallen comrades. Zhou had massive injuries including burns and cuts in legs. “I’m doing this for my child”.

“It was just a sea of fire”, Lin recalled. One report suggested that water used by first responders may have come into contact with a chemical that explodes on contact with water, but an official also is quoted as saying the first wave of firefighters could not have sparked the blasts.

“There is no government official willing to meet us”.

Francis made the remarks despite a tense relationship between Beijing and the Vatican.