Death toll in blasts in China’s Tianjin port rises to 85

The death toll in Wednesday’s inferno and blasts that devastated industrial and residential zones has climbed to 85, including 21 firefighters – making the disaster the deadliest for Chinese firefighters in more than six decades.

The city is one of China’s largest ports with an estimated population of about 11 million, thousands of whom have apparently been displaced to temporary shelters.

‘I was in this vibrant city, meeting local workers at the Airbus factory, just hours before the explosions happened and pay tribute to Tianjin emergency workers who have been fighting fires and treating casualties, ‘ he said.

“We knew there was calcium carbide inside but we didn’t know whether it had already exploded”, Lei said.

“We believe there should still be a lot stored at the terminal areas”, he said.

Xinhua identified the owner of the warehouse as Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai global Logistics and the China Daily newspaper said its manager had been detained.

Fires are still burning at the scene of the explosions and a team of chemical experts has been called in to the site to test for toxic gases.

Reports by the Beijing News and other mainstream Chinese media outlets that have since been deleted online said about 700 tons of sodium cyanide were stored in the warehouse, located about 110 kilometres south-west of Beijing.

One firefighter was pulled from the zone at about dawn Friday and taken to a hospital, where he was being treated for face, chest and foot injuries, state broadcaster CCTV reported. After Wednesday’s blasts, fire crews were criticised for using water to douse flames which may have contributed to the blasts given the volatile nature of the chemicals involved.

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

The operators of the Tianjin site have been accused of “clearly violating” safety rules.

Residents in a relocation site of the blasts have been evacuated in fear of chemical pollutants in the air.

Tianjin Tanggu Environmental Monitoring Station told media that sodium cyanide (NaCN), toluene diisocyanate (TDI) – a feedstock for polyurethanes – and calcium carbide (CaC2) are among the toxic chemicals that may have been in the shipping containers in the warehouse. So there were different quantities and types of material there all the time.

A rescued man receives medical treatment at a hospital of the People’s Liberation Army in Tianjin, north China, August 15, 2015.

There were two explosions. Estimates say that one vehicle company lost around 1,000 cars and two others lost more than 4,000 combined.

Numerous hundreds hurt in the explosions were cut by shattered glass.