Massive explosion rocks Chinese city

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Alfrescian

Loyal

• Aug 13, 2015

• #1

Massive explosion rocks Chinese city

POSTMEDIA NETWORK
FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015 02:10 PM EDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015 02:55 PM EDT

Explosion. (YouTube/MatthewCategory)

Residents of the Chinese city, Tianjin, witnessed a terrifying scene Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

According to a video posted on Live Leak, the explosion occurred at a chemical plant just a few kilometers away from the city at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.


Casualties are expected to be reported, according to the National Post.

More to come on this developing story.

 

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OutOfControl

Alfrescian

Loyal

• Aug 14, 2015

• #2

Chemical experts assess China blast site after 50 killed

AFP
August 14, 2015, 6:20 am


VIDEO Massive explosions rock Chinese city

Tianjin (China) (AFP) - A Chinese military team of nuclear and chemical experts began work Thursday at the site of two massive explosions in the city of Tianjin, state media said, as pressure grows for authorities to explain the cause of blasts that left 50 dead.

The detonation at a chemical warehouse in the major Chinese port city also injured more than 700, according to official media, leaving a devastated landscape of incinerated cars, toppled shipping containers and burnt-out buildings.

The 217-strong group of military specialists tested the air around the site for toxic gases, with rescue teams ordered to wear protective clothing in the vicinity due to the ongoing risk of leaking poisonous chemicals, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace warned that substances from the site could be dangerous, saying it was "critical" that the potential toxins in the air were monitored closely.

Rescuers were attempting to remove 700 tons of deadly sodium cyanide from the area late Thursday, Communist Party newspaper the People's Daily reported.

Wen Wurui, head of Tianjin's environment protection bureau, told a televised briefing that harmful chemicals detected in the air were not at "excessively high" levels.

A lack of answers as to what caused the blast 24 hours on has reinforced questions about standards in the country, where campaigners say lives are sacrificed on a lack of respect for safety and poor implementation.

A panel of officials at a Thursday press conference were peppered with questions about what chemicals were in the tanks that exploded, but they refused to provide details, and the briefing ended abruptly with officials rushing off stage.

"Clearly there is no real culture of safety in the workplace in China," said Geoffrey Crothall, spokesman for Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, which promotes worker rights.

Zhang Yong, the head of Binhai New District where the blasts occurred, told journalists only that "before the explosion, locals saw the fire and reported it".

Citing rescue headquarters, the official Xinhua news agency said 50 people had been killed, including at least 12 firefighters.

- 'I thought it was an earthquake' -

An AFP reporter in Tianjin in the early hours of Thursday saw shattered glass up to three kilometres (two miles) from the site of the blast, which unleashed a vast fireball that dwarfed towers in the area, lit up the night sky and rained debris on the city.

"When I felt the explosion I thought it was an earthquake," resident Zhang Zhaobo told AFP. "I ran to my father and I saw the sky was already red. All the glass was broken, and I was really afraid."

The blast site sits in a giant logistics hub more than twice the size of Hong Kong.

It hosts auto plants, aircraft assembly lines, oil refineries and other service and production facilities.

The explosion was felt several kilometres away, even being picked up by a Japanese weather satellite, and images showed walls of flame enveloping buildings and rank after rank of gutted cars at an import facility.

Paramedics rushed the injured on stretchers into city hospitals as doctors bandaged up victims, many of them covered in blood.

At one city hospital a doctor wept over a dead firefighter still in uniform, his skin blackened from smoke, as he was wheeled past along with two other bodies.

Xinhua said 701 people were hospitalised, 71 of them in critical condition.

Mei Xiaoya, 10, and her mother were turned away from the first hospital they went to because there were too many people, she told AFP.

"I'm not afraid, it's just a scratch," she said pointing to the bandage on her arm. "But mum was hurt badly, she couldn't open her eyes."

The blaze that followed the blast was brought "under initial control" on Thursday afternoon, Xinhua cited the public security ministry as saying, after 1,000 firefighters and 143 fire engines had been deployed to the site.

Xinhua described the facility as a storage and distribution centre of containers of dangerous goods, including chemicals.

Executives from the storage centre's owner, Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics, were taken into custody by police, it said.

- 'All-out efforts' -

State broadcaster CCTV said that President Xi Jinping had urged "all-out efforts to rescue victims and extinguish the fire".

On Thursday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and the injuries to scores of people".

China has a dismal industrial safety record as some factory and warehouse owners evade regulations to save money and pay off corrupt officials to look the other way.

In 2013, a pipeline explosion at state-owned oil refiner Sinopec's facility in the eastern port of Qingdao killed 62 people and injured 136.

In July this year, 15 people were killed and more than a dozen injured when an illegal fireworks warehouse exploded in the northern province of Hebei, which neighbours Tianjin.

And 146 were killed in an explosion at a car parts factory in Kunshan, near Shanghai, in August last year.

Tianjin, about 140 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of Beijing, is one of China's biggest cities with a population of nearly 15 million people, according to 2013 figures.

 

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Loyal

• Aug 16, 2015

• #3

Chemical levels above safe limit at site of Tianjin warehouse explosion

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 16 August, 2015, 1:12am
UPDATED : Sunday, 16 August, 2015, 1:23am

Nectar Gan and Keira Lu Huang in Tianjin

Firefighters work at the site of the explosions on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Firefighters continued to battle flash fires in Tianjin late Saturday night, three days after two massive explosions rocked one of mainland China’s biggest port claiming the lives of at least 104 people.

Chemical experts have also located amounts of potentially deadly sodium cyanide scattered across the blast site, which they believe came from a stockpile of 700 tonnes of the toxic chemical stored in the warehouse at the epicentre of last week’s blasts.

A report in the official Science and Technology Daily said the chemical had been scattered by the blasts, but the exact size of the warehouse’s stockpile had not been confirmed by the government.

Of the 722 people injured in the explosions, 58 remained in a critical condition heading into Sunday morning. It is unclear how many people are still missing or unaccounted for.

Two more survivors were pulled from the ruins on Saturday, one of them identified by state media as Han Fengqun. There were no details about the second.

Tianjin fire chief Zhou Tian said that due to the long working hours, some firefighters suffered chest pain and felt weak.

A man carrying his belongings walks out of his home in a residential area near the site of the explosions in Tianjin on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Ruins strewn across the port’s warehouse area burst into flames several times Saturday morning, sending thick plumes of smoke into the sky. By evening, the flames had been put out, but columns of smoke continued to rise above the shipping container littered blast site.

The new fires led the authorities to order residents who had taken refuge in a school near the blast site to be evacuated after a change in wind direction sparked fears of toxic poisoning, Xinhua reported.

Other reports said people within 3 kilometres of ground zero were ordered to evacuate, but this was later denied at a press conference held by the authorities.

By the early hours of this morning, two of the 17 air-monitoring stations around the blast site had recorded amounts of the highly poisonous hydrogen cyanide exceeding safety limits for a short period, Tianjin’s environmental protection chief Wen Wurui told state broadcaster CCTV.

One station was 0.04 times over the limit, the other 0.5 times higher. Wen said coming into contact with the substance in a short period of time would not have an obvious effect on the human body.

Hydrogen cyanide can be released by sodium cyanide, a highly toxic substance which can kill rapidly if inhaled when it dissolves or is burnt.

News website Thepaper.cn reported the sodium cyanide at the blast site was from the Hebei Chengxin in neighbouring Hebei province, citing several workers at the company, who claimed it is one of largest producers of sodium cyanide in China.

The workers said the company’s owner and managers hadgone to Tianjin to help deal with the substance, the report said.

President Xi Jinping said recent work safety accidents had exposed severe problems in the mainland’s production safety.

Premier Li Keqiang urged state departments and local governments to check for potential safety hazards.

 

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Loyal

• Aug 16, 2015

• #4

'Is the air safe?' Post reporter tells of stinging eyes and headaches at scene of Chinese chemical blast

South China Morning Post reporter Li Jing describes the scene of the Tianjin blasts after arriving on Thursday

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 12:18am
UPDATED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 8:48am

Li Jing
[email protected]

Military specialists in handling chemical materials prepare to enter the core area of the explosion site in Tianjin. Photo: Xinhua

It started with a headache and occasional stinging in my eyes on Thursday afternoon, a few hours after I arrived at Teda Hospital. Many people injured in the massive explosions in Tianjin the night before were still being treated.

It must be an emotional reaction, I thought, not a physical one. After all, the air smelled OK - not pungent - and so many people including doctors, nurses, the injured and their relatives, reporters, volunteers and policemen were walking about, breathing normally.

South China Morning Post reporter Li Jing. File Photo

But later in the day, other reporters complained of similar symptoms. Now I was not so sure.

A taxi driver, surnamed Xu, who had been driving the injured and relatives around for whole day, for free, reported the same thing to me that evening.

"Is the air safe?" he asked. "My eyes sting, especially after I stand awhile in the open air outside the hospital. I had to go back to my car and close all the windows."

I could tell him only what officials had said: that air monitoring indicated that any toxic fumes were within safe limits.

Privately, I was not so assured. Nobody knows, even now, exactly what hazardous materials were in the storage facility that exploded and continued burning, and what resulting substances had been released into the air. I asked some of my contacts in the environmental protection sector - nothing on the record, just to try to gauge the situation for myself - but even then nothing was conclusive.

The evaluations ranged from "the air should largely be safe as toxic substances should have been incinerated" to "the explosion could generate some irritants, or low toxicity substances, but they're being dispersed by the wind. The air won't kill you".

So, the worst scenario didn't sound too bad.

But uncertainty lingers. Even an expert on secondment by the government to tackle the crisis scratched his head.

Feng Guangyin, a professor at Nankai University in Tianjian, said yesterday morning that the types of major pollutants were being monitored. They included toluene (a solvent that smells like paint thinner), chloroform and volatile organic compounds, but their concentrations were gradually declining, Feng said. "However, without knowing exactly what materials exploded, we cannot judge clearly what pollutants were generated," he said.

That message haunts me. Thousands of residents, injured or affected by the blasts, who live only about 3km from where the explosions took place, still don't know what they might have inhaled.

 

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Loyal

• Aug 16, 2015

• #5

Survivor pulled from shipping container 62 hours after blasts rock Chinese city of Tianjin, as death toll rises to 104

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 16 August, 2015, 12:07am
UPDATED : Sunday, 16 August, 2015, 1:09am

Celine Sun
[email protected]

Han Fengqun, 56, was found in a shipping container 50 metres from the centre of the blast area. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Rescuers made a miracle find on Saturday afternoon by pulling a survivor from the wreckage of the twin blasts at a Tianjin dangerous goods warehouse, on the same as more blasts rattled the site.

The man was discovered nearly three days after the massive explosions as the death toll crept up to 104 before midnight, state media reported.

Han Fengqun, 56, was found at 2pm in a shipping container 50 metres from the centre of the blast area, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

He was found by troops trained in chemical defence and warfare under a pile of shipping containers that had been buckled by the force of the blasts on Wednesday night.

They had been searching through the containers by torchlight before they found him, the report said.

He was still conscious and able to say a few words before he was taken to a military hospital.

Firefighters work at the site of the explosions in Tianjin on Saturday. Photo: AFP

China News Service reported he was in critical condition and suffering from severe dehydration and respiratory failure. Doctors earlier said he had suffered burns to his throat and lungs, plus several fractures to his body.

Han comes from Henan province and had been running a grocery business in the city’s port for two years.

State television said he had spoken to his family by phone on Wednesday night before the blasts and then went missing.

The chemical defence force of the Beijing garrison started their search at noon after receiving a report that another resident, an employee working for a logistics company at the port, was still missing.

A team of 70 chemical warfare troops searched the area looking for survivors, Xinhua said.

A 19-year-old firefighter, Zhou Ti, was found alive near the centre of the blasts on Friday morning. He was among the first firefighters to reach the scene on Wednesday night.

He suffered burns to his face and eyes as well as fractured ribs, state media reported.

Photo taken on Saturday shows a scene of the warehouse explosion site in Tianjin. Photo: Xinhua

Meanwhile, as new explosions rocked the site on Saturday, some residents were told to stay indoors or voluntarily left temporary shelters due to changes in the wind direction, amid lingering concerns about a chemical contamination in the industrial zone.

Despite rumours and news reports that an evacuation had been enacted for a radius of up to 3 kilometres, a government official in Tianjin denied that this was the case.

Seven or eight fresh blasts caused new fires to break out at the facility in the port city, the state news agency Xinhua reported. It did not give details about the scale of the latest explosions.

As the list of casualties count continued to grow, the Pope offered prayers in Rome for the victims and their families.

"Those who have lost their lives as well as all those touched by this catastrophe are in my prayers," Pope Francis said during angelus prayers at St Peter's in Rome during the Catholic Feast of the Assumption, which marks Christ's mother Mary's ascent to heaven.

Starting from 11am, police and volunteers with loudspeakers were telling Tianjin residents to start evacuating the danger zone, The Beijing News reported on its news website.

Local people pray for victims as they lay flowers and light candles outside Taida hospital in Tianjin. Photo: EPA

However, some residents had reportedly returned later in the day after the wind direction changed again.

Police blocked Donghai Road, the main road leading to the blast zone. At the same, teams in vehicles were seen clearing paths for rescue efforts.

Thirteen firefighters and an unknown number of port workers were still missing, Xinhua reported.

One firefighter was rescued from the ruins of the warehouse early Friday morning.

The disaster started when two explosions with a combined force of 24 tonnes of TNT ripped through the industrial Binhai New Area, burning everything in its path and damaging infrastructure up to 1 kilometre away, including surround apartment blocks.

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The charred remains of new cars at the site of the warehouse explosion. Photo: Xinhua

At least 721 people were injured when explosions and a fireball hit the warehouse late Wednesday. Twenty-five were critically wounded and another 33 were in a serious condition, Xinhua said.

More than 1,000 rescuers were proceeding slowly in uncertain conditions where unidentified hazardous substances triggered the explosion, authorities said.

Armed police were carrying out the evacuation after highly poisonous sodium cyanide was found at the site, The Beijing News said, as the blaze intensified dramatically, with several blasts reportedly heard.

“Out of consideration for toxic substances spreading, the masses nearby have been asked to evacuate,” Xinhua said.

Officials said earlier that specialists from sodium cyanide producers were being sent in to the hazardous goods storage facility where giant explosions days earlier sent a huge fireball soaring into the sky and left a vast radius of destruction.

An aerial view of a large hole in the ground in the aftermath of a huge explosion that rocked the port city. Photo: EPA

Authorities have struggled to control the resulting days-long blaze and identify the substances present at the scene, sparking fears among locals.

Furious residents and victims’ relatives railed against officials outside a news conference for keeping them in the dark as criticism over a lack of transparency mounted. There were 21 firefighters among the dead, authorities said.

They were prevented from entering the briefing and could be heard shouting outside.

“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.

Officials said they were unable to identify precisely what chemicals were at the site at the time.

At the news conference, Tianjin work safety official Gao Huaiyou listed a host of possible substances, adding that recent large exports that passed through the site had included sodium bisulfide, magnesium, sodium, potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, and sodium cyanide, among others.

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

Pope Francis delivers a blessing from the window of his studio overlooking St.Peter's Square in Rome on Saturday during the Angelus noon prayer at the Vatican. He also gave his condolences to the victims in Tianjin. Photo: AP

Personnel from sodium cyanide producers had been called in “because they are experts on the chemical’s nature and the ways to deal with it”, he added.

A sewage pipe where the chemical had reportedly been detected had been sealed off, he said.

More than 200 nuclear and biochemical experts from the Chinese military were deployed to Tianjin, which has a population of 15 million, on Thursday.

Concerns about the chemical cocktail also raised questions over whether firefighters responding to an initial blaze at the warehouse could have contributed to the detonations by spraying water over substances that react explosively to it.

One senior official insisted firefighters had followed the proper procedures, but noted that they were unaware of the precise chemicals present when they arrived.

“It is not clear whether a chemical reaction occurred,” said Lei Jinde, the head of the firefighting department at Tianjin’s public security bureau.

“We knew there was calcium carbide, but we don’t know whether the calcium carbide exploded and caught fire,” he said in an interview published by Xinhua. “It is not that the firefighters were fools ... No, it is not that.”

Lei said that the facility was listed as holding ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate, as well as calcium carbide.

State newspaper The People’s Daily said earlier that the facility’s construction “clearly violated” safety rules.

Under Chinese regulations, warehouses stocking dangerous materials must be at least one kilometre away from surrounding public buildings and main roads, it said, but there were two residential compounds and several main roads within that distance.

 

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Loyal

• Aug 16, 2015

• #6

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OutOfControl

Alfrescian

Loyal

• Aug 16, 2015

• #7

China blasts death toll rises over 100 as residents evacuate

AFP
August 16, 2015, 1:34 am

Tianjin (China) (AFP) - The death toll from the giant chemical explosions in the Chinese port of Tianjin has reached 104, the Xinhua said Saturday, as area residents were evacuated over fears of cyanide contamination.

A days-long fire intensified at the hazardous goods storage facility with a series of new explosions sending thick black smoke into the air, the official news agency said.

Xinhua said late Saturday the death toll had climbed from 85 to 104, quoting local officials.

According to rescue headquarters, 722 people have been hospitalised, 58 of whom are in a critical or serious condition.

Twenty-one firefighters were among the dead, authorities have said.

Earlier on Saturday, three days after the gigantic explosions sent a huge fireball into the sky and left a vast swathe of destruction, President Xi Jinping issued a statement warning authorities to learn the "extremely profound" safety lessons highlighted by the tragedy.

The decision to relocate anyone within three kilometres (two miles) of the site came despite official assurances that the disaster had not released dangerous levels of toxic substances into the environment.

However, Xinhua said area residents had been evacuated "in fear of chemical pollutants in the air".

The Beijing News said armed police were carrying out the evacuation after sodium cyanide was found at the site.

At a barrier on the edge of the evacuation zone, masks were distributed to emergency personnel and police turned back anyone else, as at least 20 fire engines streamed in.

The area itself was already largely deserted, many of the buildings within it ruined, and an acrid smell hung in the air.

One couple carrying suitcases confirmed from behind their masks only that they lived within it, before leaving.

Officials said earlier that specialists from sodium cyanide producers were being sent in to the devastated industrial area where the blasts occurred.

Reports have said there could have been as much as 700 tonnes of the substance -- exposure to which can be fatal -- at the site.

Soldiers trained in anti-chemical warfare techniques were also deployed.

Authorities have struggled to identify the substances present at the scene, sparking fears and scepticism among residents of Tianjin, which has a population of 15 million.

- Host of possible substances -

At a news conference, Tianjin work safety official Gao Huaiyou listed a host of possible substances that may have been at the site at the time of the explosions.

Personnel from sodium cyanide producers were called in "because they are experts on the chemical's nature and the ways to deal with it", he added.

A sewage pipe where the chemical had reportedly been detected had been sealed off, he said.

Authorities had repeatedly said beforehand that air quality in the city generally met requirements, although levels of some pollutants exceeded regulations.

Questions have also been raised over whether firefighters responding to an initial blaze at the warehouse could have contributed to the detonations by spraying water over substances that react explosively to it.

One senior official insisted that firefighters had followed the proper procedures.

"We knew there was calcium carbide, but we don't know whether the calcium carbide exploded and caught fire," Lei Jinde, the head of the firefighting department at Tianjin's public security bureau, said in an interview published by Xinhua.

Lei said that the facility was also listed as holding ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate.

- 'In the dark' -

China has a dismal industrial safety record, and authorities have released only limited information about the accident, a criticism often levelled at Chinese officials in the aftermath of disasters.

Furious victims' relatives railed against officials outside a news conference Saturday over the lack of transparency and information.

"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.

The People's Daily said earlier that the facility's construction "clearly violated" safety rules, in particular those that require warehouses stocking dangerous materials to be at least one kilometre (half a mile) from surrounding public buildings and main roads.

"I would rather not believe they are true when I see a series of rumours, but the cruel reality has proved their authenticity," Chinese director Yang Li, the winner of a Silver Bear at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, wrote in a post on microblogging platform Sina Weibo.

"Why did they (the government) cover it up?"

More than 360 social media accounts have been shut down or suspended for "spreading rumours" about the blasts, Xinhua reported, citing the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).

Popular verified bloggers also made comments about the blasts described as "irresponsible", such as comparing them to the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II, CAC added.

Chinese authorities and Internet companies operate a vast censorship system and while there has been extensive discussion of the explosions, it has been confined within set boundaries.

In a written statement reported by Xinhua on Saturday, Xi said the blasts and a recent string of accidents had "exposed severe problems in the work safety sector".

Xinhua said he called on authorities to keep "people's interest first" and seek "safe growth" in avoiding such accidents.

 

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OutOfControl

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Loyal

• Aug 16, 2015

• #8

Firefighter death toll may rise: first teams to attend Chinese port disaster ‘probably missed’ by official count

Three teams that attended Tianjin fire were employed by port rather than fire department, meaning they may not have been included in figures

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 12:03am
UPDATED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 12:20am

Nectar Gan
[email protected]

The confirmed death toll is 56 people, including 21 firefighters, but mainland media have warned this could rise. Photo: Xinhua

The death toll of firefighters killed by the massive blasts at the port of Tianjin may be higher than that announced by authorities, as the first batch to arrive are unlikely to have been counted, mainland media have reported.

By Friday evening, a total of 56 people were confirmed to have died in the blasts, including 21 firefighters who were killed when trying to put out the fire, according to Tianjin authorities.

But the actual number of firefighter casualties could be higher, because the first three teams called to the site did not belong to Tianjin’s fire department, which is under the public security bureau, financial news outlet Caixin reported.

In China, most fire services are part of either the public security bureaus or armed police. But there are also firefighters hired directly by large enterprises.

Lei Jinde, the deputy propaganda chief of the fire department, told news website Thepaper.cn that “three professional fire service teams of the port office at the pier” were the first to arrive after the fire broke out at the warehouse.

“They are professional teams which belong to enterprise…We don’t really know their injuries and casualties clearly. They were the closest [to the site], therefore they could be there first,” Lei was quoted as saying.

The salaries of the Tianjin port firefighters were provided by the state-owned Tianjin Port Holdings, according to Caixin.

An unidentified source close to the Tianjin port’s fire service teams said many of the team members were still missing, including some team leaders.

Family members of the team leaders said on social media that they had not been able to contact them since Wednesday night.

There were 240 firefighters paid by the Tianjin Port Holdings, Caixin said. It was not clear how many of them were dispatched to the blast site.

 

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• Aug 16, 2015

• #9

Ray of hope amid crushing despair: firefighter found alive 30 hours after Chinese port blast

Relatives of those missing decry official silence as death toll rises to 56

PUBLISHED : Friday, 14 August, 2015, 12:37pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 3:34am

Keira Lu Huang in Tianjin
[email protected]

Relatives are overcome with emotion at Tianjin's Teda Hospital. Photo: K. Y. Cheung

Miracles are seized upon in catastrophes as they inject hope into overwhelming despair, as happened yesterday morning when a firefighter was found alive about 30 hours after the blasts in Tianjin.

Zhou Ti, 19, was found at 7.05am on Friday morning at the scene of the blasts, city government officials said at a news briefing.

Rescuers found Zhou about 20 metres from the blast point lying on the ground with his eyes closed, but slight movement in his throat indicated he was still alive. Three dead firefighters were found nearby.

He was among the first of about 1,000 firefighters who fought the blaze at the warehouse owned by Ruihai International Logistics in the industrial Binhai New Area on Wednesday night, shortly before two massive explosions.

Zhou was found at just after 7am on Friday morning. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Zhou is said to be in a stable condition, state television reported, citing hospital doctors.

Zhou was sent to Teda Hospital with burns to his face and lungs, and cuts down to the bone on his left leg. Doctor Shen Qiang said he was conscious but had no recollection beyond the blast. "Captain, has the fire been put out yet," Zhou was quoted as saying when he regained consciousness. "How's everyone else?" he said. But none from his team have survived.

A fire department chief whose team found Zhou, who appeared visibly moved, told state television that the firefighter had a strong will to survive.

He said his team had revisited an area of the blast site on Friday morning it had not been able to search properly last night as fires were still burning.

At least 17 firefighters were killed tackling the huge blaze, state media reported. Many others are missing.

A new drone photo from CCTV shows a crater on the ground.

Families in despair

The families of missing firefighters are waiting at hospitals to identify bodies. Most fire crews are usually aged between 19 to 22, according to relatives.

Family members have said that the first firefighters to the scene came from one brigade and only two are thought to have survived.

Families of missing firefighters gathered at Teda and Tianjin Port Hospital, eager for any news about their loved ones. When asked about their sons or nephews, tears would well in their eyes.

According to figures released by authorities yesterday, 22 firefighters are confirmed dead and 13 remain missing. At least 68 firemen are injured. But families are suspicious of the figures. The number of names on the "missing list" at the Teda Hospital alone far exceeded 20.

Frustrated by the official silence, families exploded in anger and tears of desperation. When one person began to cry or shout, others would become emotional too. "I used to be really tough, hardly cried," Peng Jiuling told the South China Morning Post. His nephew, 22-year-old firefighter Peng Debao has been missing since the blast. "But now, looking at that crying woman makes me want to cry too."

Peng belonged to the port fire department's No. 4 team, many of whom came from the same hometown of Jixian. Two have been found alive, including 26-year-old Liu Bin. He is being treated at Teda Hospital's intensive care unit after the blast wave crushed his spleen and broke his ribs, which punctured his lung.

Three other firefighters are being cared for in the same ICU. Liu's father Liu Jinliang, 47, considers his son a lucky man. The blast happened when he went back to the fire truck to attach a hose to a new tank of water. That extra distance saved his life.

The firefighters initial response remains clouded in controversy. A fireman told the Southern Weekly that after pumping water at the fire for more than 10 minutes, there were small blasts followed by the first deadly one. He said the more than 100 firefighters who arrived in the first batch weren't informed the chemicals were more dangerous if they came into contact with water.

The Global Times reported that when the port's fire department received the alarm, they weren't told dangerous chemicals were involved. It was described as a normal civilian case even though crews were trained and equipped with special gear to handle chemical explosions.

Xinhua said the disaster has claimed the most number of firefighters in a single incident since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Reading that news and looking at the dirty boots taken from his injured son, Liu Bin's father gave a long sigh. "He chose this job, so he can't say no to a command. He can't and shouldn't question it. He is lucky."

Military chemical warfare experts inspected the site of the blasts on Friday morning. Photo: China Military Online

Further chemical risks

Officials said on Friday that the scene of the explosions was still dangerous for firemen as dangerous chemicals stored in the warehouse could still trigger further blasts.

About 700 people are receiving treatment in hospital after the huge explosions rocked the city on Wednesday night, shattering windows several kilometres away from the centre of the blasts.

Troops trained in chemical warfare have entered the site to check out what dangerous substances remain, state media reported.

The authorities are considering whether to send teams into the core of the blast site on Friday to remove remaining hazardous materials in the area, state television said.

The environmental ministry has found traces of cyanides and other chemicals in two underground drainage systems three to eight times safety limits, the report said.

A Tianjin environment department official told reporters at a press briefing that all drainage outlets in the area have been shut to contain any polluted water.

Media in China have continued to question why the giant hazardous goods warehouse was allowed to operate so close to homes and other public buildings in the area.

Tianjin officials said at the press conference that Ruihai International Logistics’ warehouse was allowed to store hazardous goods for only 40 days while they were in transit, including gases and liquids.

A destroyed fire engine at the blast core. Photo: Xinhua

They said company records were destroyed in the explosions and fire and the authorities had difficulty finding out exactly what was stored in the complex as firefighters attempted to tackle the blaze.

They are now trying to compile a list by going back through customs records.

Firefighters were pulled out of the area briefly on Thursday morning because of fears over their lack of knowledge of what dangerous substances they were dealing with.

Additional reporting by Zhuang Pinghui and Mimi Lau

 

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• Aug 16, 2015

• #10

Tianjin residents kept in the dark about fatal blasts, Hong Kong witness says

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 4:00am
UPDATED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 4:00am

Jennifer Ngo
[email protected]

Two men look at broken windows in a building near the site of an explosion in Tianjin. Photo: AFP

A Hongkonger who lives just 3km from the site of the massive chemical explosions in Tianjin saw the blasts from her window late on Wednesday night.

The woman, surnamed Ho, might have had a front-row seat to the fatal industrial accident, but she, like other residents of the port city, was kept in the dark because of a dearth of reliable information from the authorities.

Calling in to a Hong Kong radio show yesterday, Ho recalled the night's happenings and the cloak of mystery surrounding the dual blasts that have killed scores of people.

She was about to go to bed at around 11.30pm, she said, when she felt the first tremor. Thirty seconds later, she heard the second blast and felt the floor beneath her shake even more.

"From my window, I saw an explosion with fire lighting up the sky and felt an air current rushing towards the window," she said.

"I had turned on the air conditioner and so the windows were closed, but I could still feel this burst of air trying to push in."

Ho has been living in Tianjin for four years as her husband is working at a new development area near the harbour.

With scant news available, she turned to personal connections, such as friends who had relatives working in the fire department.

She also relied on WhatsApp messages from friends back in Hong Kong.

"My friends told me about the water pollution and sent me photos," she said.

"Luckily, I also knew friends working in the government who were able to get me non-official news about what was really going on - and it matched what was being reported in Hong Kong."

Damaged windows blown into an apartment by shock waves from explosions at a nearby port in northeastern China's Tianjin. Photo: AP

Information released by the municipal government was limited and very unreliable, she said.

"The government's news cannot be fully trusted. What we need is someone to honestly do a professional assessment of the situation."

Ho had initially thought the first blast was some kind of gas explosion, maybe from a kitchen.

"The neighbours were quite nice," she said. "They were banging on the door and shouting, 'Is there anyone inside? Let's go; we have to run'."

They got dressed and, armed with wet towels, went down the stairs. Lots of people were already on the street. Plenty of shattered glass was lying around, but no one knew what was happening.

While her building was not so badly affected, Ho later heard that all the windows from the eighth floor down were completely shattered in the adjacent block.

The fact that she was living so close to a hazardous-goods warehouse had previously eluded her. "I didn't know at all," she said.

Now she knew - because a friend had moved into a new residential block that was just 1km from the blast site. The place was badly damaged, she added.

Despite their proximity to ground zero, Ho's husband had to go back to work.

She had thought of volunteering at the site, but heard the government was not admitting any more volunteers because it was very chaotic there.

"We also learned there was a serious manpower shortage at the hospitals," she said.

That night, Ho returned home after the police came over and assured them it was safe. But her friend was not so lucky.

"Those living in that neighbourhood had to clear out. Some stayed at hotels and some slept on the streets."

Still, Ho left her home after learning from insiders that two gas containers - or four, according to other sources - had yet to detonate. Many of her friends had also gone away, she added.

"I'm also thinking of returning to Hong Kong," she said.

 

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• Aug 16, 2015

• #11

Company at centre of China's Tianjin port blasts 'may have exploited regulatory loopholes'

State media says regulatory gaps in the industry and business licensing procedure may have allowed firm to operate warehouse near residential area

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 12:02am
UPDATED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 12:07am

Zhuang Pinghui
[email protected]

Smoke rises at the site of the warehouse explosions in Tianjin on Friday. Photo: AFP

Regulatory gaps in the hazardous material industry and the business licensing procedure may have allowed Ruihai International Logistics to build and operate its warehouse near a residential area in China's port city of Tianjin, Chinese state media reported on Friday.

A column in the overseas edition of People's Daily noted that national standards made no mention of a minimum distance separating a dangerous goods facility from other buildings.

The only instance where a safety zone is mentioned is in a technical specification from 2001. It requires such warehouses to be at least 1km from public buildings, transportation lines or factories. But a highway, light rail line and residential area were all about 600 metres from the Ruihai Logistics' facility in the Binhai New Area, and all were damaged in the explosions.

"The country has never released safety distances for plants with hazardous chemicals, allowing indecent companies to take advantage of the loophole," said the article, which was later deleted from the media outlet's website.

An aerial photo of the extent of damage caused by the blasts. Photo: Xinhua

The other major concern raised by the article dealt with official oversight and enforcement. Ruihai Logistics' business registration mentions only storage of general goods, according to the article. But Gao Huaiyou, deputy director of the Tianjin Administration of Work Safety, said in a Friday briefing that the company had obtained qualification for temporary storage of hazardous goods while waiting for customs clearance.

Under China's murky, crisscrossing network of agency oversight, authority may have also rested elsewhere. The People's Daily article said Ruihai Logistics was registered in the Tianjin Dongjiang Bonded Port Area and was eligible for a business permit issued by the port authority, instead of the work safety authority.

The port authority usually issues business permits for storage of hazardous chemicals together with a port business licence. But the licence is for storage only and companies are subject to inspection by the local work safety authority if there is any unpacking or testing of the goods.

The article also pointed out that the warehouses were situated far from the port and technically should have been under the administration of the work safety authority. In addition, both the work safety authority and urban planning authority are involved in the approval process constructing such a facility. But the work safety agency is not consulted when residential or other non-industrial buildings are approved for an area.

 

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• Aug 16, 2015

• #12

Families' fury over China blast missing

AFP
August 16, 2015, 1:30 am

Tianjin (China) (AFP) - Furious, frustrated and fearful, relatives of the missing in giant explosions in Tianjin besieged officials Saturday demanding answers on their loved ones? fates ? only for security to intervene instead.

Three days after vast explosions lit up the night sky and left scenes of utter devastation across an industrial zone in the northern Chinese city -- and scores dead -- a father said he had yet to hear from his firefighter son.

"We tried to call him as soon as we saw the explosions on television, but it's been impossible to reach him," said the man in his fifties, surnamed Liu, his voice trembling with emotion.

Even so he was certain his 22-year-old son -- a new recruit to the Tianjin fire service -- must have been among the more than 1,000 firefighters deployed to the scene of the disaster.

"The authorities have not contacted us," he said in flat tones, wearing a blue worker's cap typical of the Maoist era.

At least 85 people were killed by the blasts at a hazardous goods storage facility -- with 21 of them firefighters.

The man was among a dozen relatives of the missing who were barred from a press conference authorities gave at a hotel on Saturday.

As unperturbed local officials gave their presentation, their cries and shouts penetrated the doors that had been locked by security staff to keep them out.

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

A young man being pulled into a stairwell shouted: "We are the families of the victims! What right do you have to treat us this way?"

- 'Wait and wait' -

When disaster strikes in China authorities regularly seek to muzzle victims' families and ensure that domestic media focus on positive aspects: rescuers' heroism or miracle rescue.

Pictures of Zhou Ti, a 19-year-old fireman rescued from the rubble on Friday, have been given heavy coverage in Chinese media, along with his first words when he recovered consciousness, according to authorities: "Have the flames been put out?"

But many social media posters have lamented the heavy price paid by the firefighters, most of them young and with limited experience. Questions have been raised about whether they could have contributed to the blast by hosing reactive substances with water.

One mother at the hotel, who gave her name as Long, was desperately awaiting news of the fate of her son Zhiqiao, a member of a brigade sent to the Tianjin port before the blasts.

"There are 25 people in a brigade," she said. "A death in my son's was confirmed on Friday night. They haven't said anything about any of the others, they just make us just wait and wait."

Several police are also missing. But according to a police officer quoted in Chinese media the force's losses have not yet been included in any tolls so far released.

Yang Jie's firefighter son was also among the early arrivals at the blast site, and has not answered his phone since.

"I do not know if he is alive," Yang said of the 24-year-old.

But he still clung to a sliver of hope.

"The media have been reporting that hospitals have not been able to find the family of one of the injured, who seems to look like my son," he said. "I will go check."

 

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• Aug 16, 2015

• #13

Trade slows at disaster-hit Chinese port as more than 100 ships wait to dock

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 4:00am
UPDATED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 4:00am

Jing Yang
[email protected]

Containers damaged by the blasts are piled together. Photo: Xinhua

More than 100 ships are waiting outside Tianjin port to load or discharge cargo, as the city grapples with trade disruption in the wake of the deadly blasts that have claimed at least 56 lives.

A total of 112 vessels were anchored off the port city yesterday, according to the Tianjin Maritime Safety Administration, with another 62 docked or waiting to dock at what is the busiest port in northern China.

Tianjin is the world's 10th-largest container port, and the fourth-busiest for bulk cargo such as iron ore and crude oil. Shipments of chemical goods and automobiles would be the cargo most affected, said freight and port agents.

"All the shipping lines have stopped accepting bookings for shipments of dangerous goods," said Dick Yip, north China general manager at BDP International, an American freight forwarding company specialising in chemical logistics.

Alternatives may be scarce as nearby Dalian port, also in the Bohai Rim, is restricted from accepting dangerous cargo. The only likely option is Qingdao , 600km away. "But such an option would certainly add to a lot more costs and transit time," Yip said.

The customs building in Xingang, the port area, has been damaged and its operation has been relocated to a makeshift office. "As the entire customs clearance is slowing down, imports could face two to five days of delay," Yip said.

For certain vessels already moored at the port, it is also taking longer to handle the cargo. Between 9am and 4pm, no oil or chemical cargos are allowed to be discharged, according to a circular by the local maritime authority seen by the South China Morning Post.

The incident could also have a significant knock-on effect on the mainland's vast appetite for imported automobiles. More than 2,000 imported cars, reportedly worth 2 billion yuan (HK$2.4 billion), stored near the warehouse were burnt down, according to mainland media.

"Tianjin is responsible for 70 per cent of imported cars in China. It will certainly affect the domestic auto market," said Ricky Huang, China general manager at Johnasia Shipping Agency.

Jan Eyvin Wang, president at Wilh. Wilhelmsen, one of the world's largest car carriers, said: "Tianjin is such a huge port of entry for foreign cars into China. This incident will certainly have ripple effects.

"We are still assessing the damages and potential contingencies."

As authorities get to grips with the cause of the tragedy, industry sources said it was not uncommon for the transport and storage of dangerous goods on the mainland to fail to comply with regulations.

"Domestic standards are a far cry from international ones. On top of the looser rules, the handling has not been up to scratch," said the logistics manager of a European chemical producer.

"It's commonplace for small, private logistics firms to put hazardous and non-hazardous goods together. The cost difference is around 30 to 40 per cent."

Another common pitfall is false disclosure of cargo, said a source who handles the transport of dangerous goods.

"Almost all the explosions are related to false disclosure that led to inappropriate storage in the warehouse or on the vessel," the source said.

 

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• Aug 16, 2015

• #14

'700 tonnes' of sodium cyanide reportedly in warehouse during deadly Tianjin blasts

Chinese officials investigate claims of sodium cyanide 70 times more than the permitted amount stored at Ruihai site

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 16 August, 2015, 4:22am
UPDATED : Sunday, 16 August, 2015, 4:22am

Nectar Gan
[email protected]

An aerial view of the crater after Wednesday's blasts. Photo: EPA

A large discrepancy over the precise quantity of hazardous chemicals being stored at a warehouse in the port area of Tianjin at the time of Wednesday night's two deadly blasts is just one of the many unanswered questions surrounding the tragedy, which has claimed at least 85 lives.

Southern Metropolis News has reported that 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide - a highly toxic substance that can kill rapidly if inhaled - were being stored the warehouse owned by Ruihai International Logistics, according to a claim by the owner of a Hebei chemical company that owned the substance - 70 times the permitted amount.

Yet a report by the government's environmental inspectors in 2014 noted that Ruihai was permitted to temporarily store up to 10 tonnes of sodium cyanide.

Two blasts ripped through an industrial area of the port at about 11.30pm on Wednesday - the first smaller blast was equivalent to three tonnes of TNT detonating - followed by a larger second blast about 30 seconds later, equivalent to 21 tonnes of TNT detonating.

An official at Tianjin's work safety watchdog told a press conference yesterday that it was likely sodium cyanide and many other hazardous chemicals, had been stored at the warehouse, but provided no further details.

However, as of late last night, Ruihai had made no public statement regarding the explosions at its warehouse; neither had it released the names or quantity of hazardous chemicals that had been stored there.

Zhi Feng, the company's general manager, remains in Tianjin's Teda Hospital, after suffering head injuries as a result of the blasts.

A doctor told Prism, Tencent media group's financial news outlet, that Zhi was now conscious and had been moved out of intensive care into a general ward. He has been accompanied by family members and is being guarded by police around the clock. Many journalists have tried to contact him, but without success.

An unnamed official at Tianjin's environmental protection bureau said he was shocked by the claim that Ruihai might have been storing 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide in the warehouse at the time of the blast.

The company would have been breaking the law if such a quantity was correct.

"Either that figure of 700 tonnes - which has yet to be verified, is untrue - or that company if facing serious allegations," the official told the Southern Metropolis News.

"If 700 tonnes of [sodium cyanide] were being stored, this would have been 70 times more than the permitted amount," the official was quoted as saying.

At a press conference on Thursday, Gao Huaiyou, deputy director of Tianjin's work safety watchdog, said there were "large discrepancies" between the amount of chemicals Ruihai's manager claimed it was storing in the warehouse and the figure obtained from customs officials.

The Beijing News questioned whether the discrepancy meant Ruihai might have been involved in smuggling dangerous chemicals.

The company has made no public statement in response to such claims.

Members of the public also questioned how the privately owned Ruihai had obtain licences to store such hazardous chemicals near residential areas.

 

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• Aug 16, 2015

• #15

Evergreen Group's logistics unit badly damaged by Tianjin explosions

2015/08/15 12:52:05

Courtesy of China News Service

Taipei, Aug. 15 (CNA) A logistics subsidiary of Evergreen Group (長榮集團), a Taiwan-based shipping conglomerate, has been badly damaged by the deadly explosions in Tianjin, a busy port city in northern China.

Evergreen said that the working area of its logistics unit -- Kingtrans International Logistics (Tianjin) Co. (天津長華國際物流) -- has suffered extensive damages due to the explosions which took place Wednesday night in the Tianjin Binhai New Area, which is located on the coast of the Bohai Sea, east of Tianjin's main urban area, and part of the Bohai Economic Rim.

The group said that since the Tianjin logistics unit is located only 500 meters from the center of the explosions, the blasts have dealt a big blow to its subsidiary.

Media reported the explosions have caused massive logistical hurdles in the port city to get cargo to go through. The blasts killed at least 85 people, with more than 700 injured.

Evergreen said that as the port area has been closed by Tianjin authorities for investigations into the cause of the blasts and no personnel of Kingtrans are allowed to enter, it is hard at this moment to assess the financial losses of the subsidiary resulting from the incident.

The blasts injured 13 Chinese employees of Kingtrans and two of them suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries, the group said.

Evergreen said that since the authorities of the Tianjin port have resumed terminal operations from 1 p.m. Friday to allow cargo loading and unloading, Kingtrans has reached a consensus with its counterparts in the port area to assist the company in its logistics operations in a bid to fulfill its obligations to its customers.

Sources from Tianjin familiar with the situation said that Kingtrans could incur tens of millions of Chinese yuan in financial losses caused by the explosions as the plant and shipping containers it owns have been almost completely destroyed.

Kingtrans was established in 2007 with an investment of about 250 million Chinese yuan (US$39.06 million), statistics showed. The company is one of large-sized logistics operators in Tianjin. The sources said that Kingtrans's operations are unlikely to fully resume in six to eight months after the explosions.

(By Wang Shu-fen, Lawrence Chiu and Frances Huang)

 

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• Aug 28, 2015

• #16

China detains 12 over Tianjin blasts, accuses officials of dereliction

REUTERS
First posted: Wednesday, August 26, 2015 09:29 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, August 27, 2015 12:04 PM EDT

An aerial picture of the site of explosions at the Binhai new district, Tianjin, China, August 16, 2015. (REUTERS/Stringer)

SHANGHAI - China has formally detained a dozen people over explosions in the city of Tianjin this month that killed at least 145 people, and has accused 11 officials and port executives of dereliction of duty or abuse of power.

Anger over safety standards is growing in China, after three decades of swift economic growth marred by incidents from mining disasters to factory fires, and President Xi Jinping has vowed that authorities will learn the lessons paid for with blood.

News of the detentions came a day after the ruling Communist Party sacked the head of the work safety regulator, a former vice mayor of Tianjin, for suspected corruption, but without making an explicit link to the Aug. 12 chemical blasts.

The chairman, vice-chairman and three deputy general managers of Tianjin Ruihai International Logistics Co Ltd, owner of the warehouse that blew up, were among those who were "criminally detained", the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

The agency said in an English-language report they had been arrested. In China, criminal detention precedes arrest, which happens only once police level formal charges.

Tianjin Port Holdings, the listed entity of the port's main operator, said it understood from the Xinhua website that its chairman, Zheng Qingyue, was being investigated for dereliction of duty and its vice-chairman was temporarily taking over his duties.

The company was operating normally, it said in a stock exchange statement.

Separately, the state prosecutor said on its website an investigation of the blasts had found officials from a range of agencies to have been irresponsible, negligent and lax in the supervision of Tianjin Ruihai.

Among these agencies were Tianjin's transport, land resources, work safety and customs offices, besides state-owned port companies.

It named 10 officials suspected of dereliction of duty and one suspected of abuse of power.

The death toll from the blasts that flattened part of the port, the world's 10th busiest, has risen to 145 with 28 people still missing, the Tianjin government said on its Weibo social media account.

 

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• Sep 1, 2015

• #17

Nearly 200 people punished in China for 'spreading online rumours' including inflating Tianjin disaster death toll

PUBLISHED : Monday, 31 August, 2015, 1:37pm
UPDATED : Monday, 31 August, 2015, 2:58pm

Agencies

China criminalised the spreading of online rumors two years ago with controversial regulations that stipulated up to three years in jail. Photo: AFP

The authorities in China have punished 197 internet users for “spreading rumours” online, including inflating the number of people killed in the Tianjin explosions disaster and falsely alleging that a man committed suicide over the turmoil in the country’s stock markets, state media reported.

The state-run news agency Xinhua, citing the Public Security Ministry, said 165 online accounts had been closed.

It did not say over what period the punishments were handed out.

One rumour was that a man jumped to his death in Beijing due to the stock market slump.

Another said that at least 1,300 people were killed in the Tianjin blasts. The number confirmed dead by the authorities after the August 12 explosions at a dangerous goods warehouse in the port city is 150.

China criminalised the spreading of online rumours two years ago with controversial regulations that stipulated up to three years in jail for publishing false or defamatory information that is seen by more than 5,000 people or forwarded over 500 times.

Since that time the government has increasingly tightened controls on online expression, with crackdowns often coming around sensitive events, such as this week’s second world war anniversary parade in Beijing.

Critics say the campaign to control online comment is also aimed at suppressing criticism of the ruling Communist Party.

Internet users have “cooked up and disseminated large numbers of rumours and provocative news about terror” related to the country’s plans to mark the anniversary of the war’s end with a military parade on Thursday, the report said.

Others have been punished for circulating claims that relatives of China’s top leaders had “maliciously” sought to drive down stock prices during the country’s recent market turmoil.

A confession from an alleged perpetrator said the man had come up with unspecified fake news as part of a ploy to draw attention to his fruit-selling business.

Punishments were meted out to those whose posts to online newsgroups and social media sites “intentionally stirred up the public, created feelings of panic and misled society”, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

Associated Press, Kyodo

 

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• Jan 27, 2016

• #18

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• Jan 27, 2016

• #19

25 probed for deadly blasts in Tianjin

Xinhua, January 26, 2016

China's procuratorate has opened investigations into 25 people suspected of dereliction of duty and abuse of power over the deadly blasts in north China's port city Tianjin last year.

Photo taken on Aug. 27, 2015 shows the burnt vehicle at the core area of the warehouse explosion site in north China's Tianjin. [Photo: Xinhua/Zhu Wei]

Yu Shiping, procurator general with the Tianjin People's Procuratorate, said on Tuesday that police also arrested another 22, including board chairman Yu Xuewei and vice board chairman Dong Shexuan of Tianjin Ruihai International Logistics Co. Ltd., owner of the hazardous materials warehouse that exploded.

"The accident reflected loopholes in production safety in Tianjin. We have learned our lesson," said Huang Xingguo, mayor of Tianjin.

On Aug. 12, two explosions ripped through a warehouse storing hazardous chemicals and residences at Tianjin Port. The blasts claimed 173 lives, including 104 firefighters.