Relatives look for loved ones after Tianjin blasts

Smoke still rose from the site of two devastating explosions in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin, as relatives continued to search for loved ones and chemical experts sought to determine what caused the huge blasts.

The air at the site still smelled bad and rescue workers were issued with upgraded face masks to deal with toxic fumes, as they searched through the twisted remains of containers and the husks of burned-out cars.

While the site has been sealed off, and emergency officials said the situation was under control, smoke still rose high in several places, and there was an explosion mid-morning.

The death toll rose to 56 yesterday and 701 had been hospitalised, including 71 critically ill, according to rescue headquarters. Twenty-one firemen have been confirmed dead, while scores are in hospital and 18 people are missing.

Search teams found a 19- year-old firefighter, Zhou Ti, in the rubble, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported, badly injured but alive.

Dozens of employees of the Tianjin Port Group company were still unaccounted for and the search was ongoing.

Families living in the apartment building near the site were told they could not move back to their homes, but would have to stay in temporary accommodation, although they were allowed back to pick up essential items.

One woman told local media her home had been broken into and items had been stolen, while another said she would be seeking compensation.

Smaller fires

More than 1,000 firefighters and 151 fire engines were at the site trying to extinguish smaller fires, Zhou Tian, head of Tianjin’s fire department, told a news conference, while 217 military, nuclear and chemical specialists were at the scene armed with detecting devices.

The explosions, equivalent to 24 tonnes of TNT, happened 30 seconds apart on Wednesday night. Firefighters were at the scene trying to put out a fire when the blasts happened.

Social media was abuzz with an exchange of texts between a firefighter and his friend, as he described the death of a mutual comrade and how he prepared for the worst. The firefighter reportedly survived the ordeal.

Gao Huaiyou, deputy head of the safety supervision bureau, told a news conference that the warehouse where the explosions took place was a temporary storage area. “All the goods in the containers were stored there temporarily and were then due to be carried away after clearing customs. So there were different quantities and types of material there all the time.

“Secondly, the office of the warehouse was seriously damaged, so we can’t get information about the type and quantity from their records. Thirdly, the information provided by the person in charge and the management personnel were not the same,” said Mr Gao.

Relocated

A total of 3,500 residents have been relocated to 10 nearby schools, after their homes suffered damage from the blast shockwave.

At the Teda number two primary school, volunteers were looking after some 1,500 local residents who were being temporarily housed there. Local residents also gave out bottled water, snacks and face masks near the temporary camps, and more than 1,000 medical staff were tending to the injured.

Wang Xiaojie, head of the emergency department at Teda hospital, said many patients had glass or shrapnel cuts, or skull injuries and fractures.

There were concerns about the safety of the air and many people were wearing face masks.

“We felt so upset after we heard about the explosion. Helping to take care of them is the only thing we can do,” Duo Mingzhu, who was at the school with her husband, told Xinhua.

Local residents are afraid of rain, which was expected in the afternoon, as they feared it could react with chemicals such as sodium cyanide and cause another explosion.

Wang Lianqing, a senior engineer from environmental science academy in Tianjin, said sodium cyanide was water-soluble, but that the site had been sealed off and normal rain would not produce any dangerous reactions.

Some safety experts have questioned the decision by the first firefighters on the scene to use water to put out a chemical fire in a facility known to house materials such as calcium carbide, which reacts explosively with water.

Exploded

“We knew there was calcium carbide inside but we didn’t know whether it had already exploded,” said Lei Jinde, a spokesman for the Chinese fire services.

“At that point no one knew, it wasn’t that the firefighters were stupid,” Mr Lei told ThePaper.cn, adding it was a large warehouse and they didn’t know the exact location of the calcium carbide.

President Xi Jinping and premier Li Keqiang have urged all-out efforts to save the injured and minimise casualties, while the state council – China’s cabinet – dispatched a work group led by the minister of public security, Guo Shengkun, to direct the rescue and emergency mission.