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A pictuer taken by Caixin shows the mystery white powder.
Some residents and journalists near the blast site in Tianjin experienced skin burns as rain hit the Binhai New Area on Tuesday.
Amid fears the rain could spark toxic reactions with chemicals at the site - in particular with hundreds of tonnes of sodium cyanide - an official urged the public to "stay far away".
As the rain progressed, an unusual white foam emerged on roads near the blast site. A journalist for Caixin reported feeling burns on the lips and arms after being exposed to the rain.
A volunteer relief worker posted on Weibo that contact with the rain turned the skin on her arms red and caused it to sting.
Similar symptoms were reported by other journalists and volunteers, according to Tencent's news site. Symptoms were relieved by rinsing with water.
But other people exposed to the rain, including South China Morning Post reporters, displayed no such symptoms.
Tianjin's environmental authorities said pollution in air and water remained at safe levels.
At least 3,000 tonnes of chemicals - including 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide - were in the warehouse where the two blasts occurred last Wednesday.
Deng Xiaowen, director of Tianjin's environmental monitoring centre, said there had been no fluctuation in air quality at 17 monitoring spots after the rain.
The white foam was "a normal phenomenon when rain falls, and similar things have occurred before", Deng said.
Workers cover a monitoring station as rain begins to fall. Photo: Xinhua
Still, fears remained over the hundreds of tonnes of sodium cyanide that were at the core blast zone. The chemical can react with water to produce highly poisonous hydrogen cyanide gas.
Bao Jingling, chief engineer of Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau, said sewage treatment had been beefed up in the zone, and only treated water would be discharged.
There would be urgent treatment of any cyanide pollution, he said, and air quality would be closely monitored with the public informed once pollution went above safe levels.
Caijing magazine quoted him as saying that "the best way is to stay far away from the site, there is no other way".
But some residents were not deterred. A homeowner whose flat was damaged in the blasts took part in an outdoor protest in the rain, demanding compensation. "Our homes have been destroyed, what more should we fear?" he said.
Soldiers, police officers and paramilitary policy bow their heads at a ceremony on Tuesday to mourn the victims of Tianjin's explosions. Photo: Xinhua
Zhang Kuan, 48, regrets having introduced his nephew to the firefighting department at Tianjin's port.
Fireman Zheng Guangliang, 18, who died in the fire in Tianjin.
His nephew, Zheng Guangliang, was a firefighter in team No 1. He arrived at the scene of the fire five minutes before the second blast and has been missing since.
"The firefighters in the same vehicle with him are all missing now," Zhang said. "The commander should have given them the right orders. I hope the investigation finds out whether he did."
He called for authorities to be transparent about the rescue mission. "I know nothing about the rescue. Are they still looking for the missing? Is the air safe there?"
His nephew, who turned 18 in May, joined the firefighting unit in June, and was still in training when he rushed to the scene. "I don't think he should have been sent there," Zhang said. "He did not have enough knowledge. He hadn't passed the evaluation yet."
His nephew, from Qing county in Hebei province, made his last call home at around 10pm that night for his daily chat with his mother. The family did not learn of the fatal blast until the next morning.
Zhang, who was already working at the port, decided to introduce his nephew to the fire department when the young man failed his college entrance exam.
"I wanted the kid toughened," Zhang recalled.
"I hope he will be treated equally with the official firefighters," Zhang added. "I hope they give him an honour."
The surviving firemen, though very few, have been hailed as heroes by the media.
Relatives of deceased firefighters grieve for the dead at a memorial hall in Tianjin. Photo: Xinhua
On Sunday afternoon, Premier Li Keqiang visited two injured firemen at the Tianjin Teda Hospital. Liu Bin, the 26-year-old son of Liu Jinliang, was one of them. He has been in the intensive care unit since the deadly blast last Wednesday.
"Look, I recorded the TV news," said the elder Liu, showing footage of the premier standing next to his son's bed and speaking with a firm and serious face.
Liu's son had spoken to him over the phone on the night of the explosion: "Dad, help me. I think I am dying. It exploded," he recalled his son as telling him.
"Soon after, we saw the news. There was an explosion in the port and we were worried to death. We rushed immediately to Tianjin."
His son, severely injured, was discovered by a passing car on Tuesday night. Despite his injuries he called his parents that night.
He explained to his mother, Zhang Jingyan, that his team had been training in the evenings because the days were too hot.
The port's contract firefighters are required to do the same intense training as paramilitary firefighters. So tough are the requirements that many of Liu's hometown friends had quit the training early on, said his mother.
His mother learned that Liu's team had rushed to the scene even before receiving the alarm.
"It was too close. They could see the flames and knew something was wrong."
The first teams to arrive at the blast zone were No 4 and No 5. None of the 25 firefighters from team No 5 made it back that night, making it the only team with no survivors.
Firefighters of Tianjin Port's team No 5, which lost 25 members to the disaster, pose for a group picture last year. Photo: Xinhua
Sun Yunfei was one of those confirmed dead, along with his six-months-pregnant wife who was resting at his dormitory.
His younger sister, Sun Lixia, attended a grand memorial organised by the local government yesterday morning.
"It's just so emotional, so sad," Sun said. "We are just waiting to see his body now, together with my sister-in-law."
Peng Jiuling was still waiting for news about his nephew, 22-year-old Peng Debao.
"We knew it was a dangerous job, but he wanted to be a soldier, wanted to be a hero. We didn't want to stop him joining the fire department," Peng said.
Smoke rises amid the devastation caused by the blasts in Tianjin. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A safety review carried out last year of the company operating the dangerous goods warehouse in Tianjin – the scene of huge explosions that killed at least 114 people – said the selection of the site was in line with regulations and the city’s development plan, according to a newspaper report.
The authorities have so far not made public the details of the review into Ruihai International Logistics' operations, but the 21st Century Business Herald said a 98-page report had concluded that the company had “established a rather sound safety management system”.
The report was dated August 2014 and was conducted by 10 people from Zhongbin Haisheng, one of two licensed safety review agencies in Tianjin, the report said.
The agency has strong government connections, including with the Tianjin Firefighting Institute which comes under the control of the Ministry of Public Security, according to the article.
A military specialist in handling biochemical materials checks a flat near the centre of the blasts. Photo: Xinhua
Regulations for companies running businesses handling dangerous chemicals require large-scale warehouses such as Ruihai’s to be at least 1 km from public buildings, transportation lines or factories.
But a highway, light rail line and residential area were all about 600 metres from the Ruihai’s base in the Binhai New Area and all were damaged in the huge explosions last Wednesday night.
There are separate regulations for companies that use dangerous chemicals, but the provisions are more vague and there are no guidelines on how far businesses should be sited from homes or other factories.
Media in China have also reported further on the murky ownership of Ruihai International.
The biggest shareholder, Li Liang, who has a 55 per cent stake, was reported to be only holding the stock on behalf others.
Li’s mother told the financial news website Prism that Li, 34, was only an ordinary employee at the company with a monthly salary of several thousand yuan.
A paramilitary policeman and a regular police officer stand guard in an area of the blasts site. Photo: Reuters
Shu Zheng, another shareholder who holds a 45 per cent stake, said earlier he was holding the stock for others and was not involved in the company’s operations.
One of real shareholders is Dong Shexuan, according to The Beijing News.
Dong’s father, Dong Peijun, was a former police chief in Tianjin port, who died last year of cancer.
The newspaper reported that Dong senior was close to Wu Changshun, a former Tianjin police chief who was investigated for alleged corruption last year.
Dong senior was also placed under investigation in 2014 for seeking benefits for relatives, but the inquiry was suspended after his death, The Beijing News said.
Injured residents evacuated from their home after last week's blasts in Tianjin show a picture on their phone of their damaged property during Wednesday's protest rally. Photo: Reuters
Authorities in Tianjin on Wednesday ruled out buying homes damaged by the shockwaves from last week’s explosions but said residents could still expect compensation.The refusal came as the number of homeowners protesting at the government press conferences doubled to about a hundred.
Zong Guoying, the Communist Party chief of the Binhai New Area, where the disaster occurred, announced the decision. “The concept of buying back something refers to the action between two parties in a transaction,” Zong said.
Arrangements for compensation would be made after professional institutions had assessed the damage, he said.
Residents evacuated from their homes after last week's deadly blasts in Tianjin take part in a protest rally in the city on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
A service centre had been set up to handle repairs, he added. But some homeowners insisted they would not move back. “No repairs! Buy our homes!” they shouted outside the venue where the briefings are being held.
Many of the protesters own homes in Harbour City, a residential complex about 600 metres from the storage facility run by Ruihai International Logistics that caught fire just before midnight on August 12.
The shockwaves from the ensuing explosions – with the second equal to 21 tonnes of TNT – ripped windows out of walls, pulled doors off their hinges and slammed furniture up against walls. Beyond the immediate physical damage, residents are worried about the long-term health risks posed by the chemicals stored by Ruihai.
“I think they are shrugging off the responsibility,” said one owner surnamed Meng. “They are saying the government has no responsibility.
“We won’t move back. They either need to buy our homes or settle us somewhere else,” he said.
They have demanded compensation and asked the government to buy back flats damaged in the blasts.
Angry residents call for the government to buy their damaged homes during a protest rally in Tianjin on Wednesday. Photo: Simon Song
The homeowners said they feared the government would declare their homes safe once the repairs were completed, but some said they could not trust the authorities. “They are the ones that gave a pass to the warehouse,” a Harbour City resident said.
“Can we believe them about the repair work?” he said. “The government has no credibility now.”
The owners only learned that repairs were under way after it was reported by state broadcaster CCTV.
About 100 homeowners attended Wednesday's protest rally in Tianjin. Photo: AP
According to Xinhua, the initial investigation revealed that the blast damaged windows and doors in at least 17,500 homes. By Monday more than 700 of these properties had undergone repairs.
The police have been accompanying small groups of residents back to their homes to pick up what is left of their belongings.
“Our home was there,” another Harbour City resident said. “Our children’s future was there. But now it’s unimaginable to move back, with the building damaged and the environment polluted.”
Mangled cargo containers and twisted wreckage at the site of the explosions in Tianjin. Photo: AFP
A week has passed since the deadly explosions in the city of Tianjin, but government authorities are still struggling to answer a slew of questions in the aftermath of the tragedy.
The state news agency Xinhua has published a report asking four questions, which it said the public were most concerned about, as it tried to shed some light on the cause of the explosions which have killed at least 114 people. But Xinhua said its conclusions did not represent the official findings.
An aerial photograph showing the site of the August 12 deadly blasts in Tianjin. Photo: Reuters
1. What caused the explosions?
An official at Ruihai International Logistics, which owns the warehouse in the port area of the city where containers of hazardous chemicals were being stored at the time of last Wednesday’s blasts, has said that chemicals stored in the containers may have exceeded safety limits.
This may have led to increased pressure forcing open a valve on top of the containers housing the chemicals, Xinhua reported.
Any release of chemicals could then have led to them catching fire, causing ammonium nitrate, a chemical that produces toxic fumes and exacerbates combustion of materials found in other chemicals, which then led to the explosions.
Several management officials at Ruihai recalled that there were at least “20 to 30 containers” filled with nitrate chemicals at the scene of the fire, each holding about 20 tonnes.
At least 10 of its containers contained ammonium nitrate, and seven to eight others contained potassium nitrate and calcium nitrate – all of them dangerous chemicals that can release toxic fumes.
Hundreds of cars awaiting delivery were destroyed at the site of the deadly Tianjin blasts. Photo: Xinhua
2. How are authorities dealing with water drainage problems in the blast zone?
Water pipes in the central area of the blast site run across an area of 10,000 square metres. According to state media, at least 40,000 cubic metres of water stored in the area contained cyanide.
The latest inspections carried out on Monday showed that levels of cyanide were 1.7 times above normal safety levels.
Xinhua reported that the contaminated water would be purified and disinfected by specialised water treatment companies to break down the cyanide. This treatment would also prevent long-term pollution of the soil, groundwater and seawater.
Cleanup operations of remaining chemicals continued in Tianjin. Photo: Xinhua
3. Will the area surrounding the blast site be contaminated?
Water tested at 40 water monitoring stations in the area on Monday contained high levels of cyanide, with some samples showing 28.4 times more cyanide than normal safety levels, Bao Jingling, chief engineer at the Tianjin bureau of environmental protection, told a press conference on Tuesday.
A dam has been built around the central area of the blast site to prevent any contaminated water from leaking into other parts of the city.
Air quality in the city is being closely monitored, with data released to the public every two hours.
Rainfall in the city on Tuesday also caused fears that it would react with chemicals at the blast site and lead to the release of toxic gases, but monitoring stations said that levels of hydrogen cyanide, a toxic gas released from sodium cyanide, were well below national safety standards.
4. Has the government relocated affected residents?
City officials have set up temporary shelters in 12 schools and three residential complexes, which can house up to 15,000 people. Hundreds of residents displaced since the deadly blasts have been supplied with food, medication and daily necessities.
According to initial investigations, at least 17,500 houses suffered damage to their windows and doors from the blasts. By Monday more than 700 of these properties had undergone repairs.
Police have been accompanying residents back to their homes in seven of the seriously affected areas to pick up what is left of their belongings.
An aerial view of the scene of the deadly Tianjin explosions. Photo: Reuters
A Tianjin city environment official has reassured the public that air and water supplies around the deadly blast site are safe following reports that an unidentified nerve gas was found in the area.
Bao Jingling, chief engineer of Tianjin’s environmental protection bureau, tells Wednesday's press briefing that tests on the air and water around the blast site show they are safe. Photo: Simon Song
Bao Jingling, chief engineer of Tianjin’s environmental protection bureau, also said on Wednesday that he had received no reports of anyone at the scene being taken to hospital with symptoms of chemical poisoning, including cyanide poisoning.
His comments came after state broadcaster CCTV raised public concerns after reporting that an unidentified nerve gas had been detected at the site, close to the city’s port area.
Clean-up workers dressed in protective clothing and breathing masks carry out investigations at Tianjin's blast site on Wednesday. Photo: Xinhua
Li Xinghua, a fire official, was quoted in the CCTV report saying that safety teams cleaning up the blast site had detected dangerously high levels of sodium cyanide and nerve gas.
Sodium cyanide can react with water to produce poisonous cyanide gas and public fears were already high after rainfall fell over the blast site for the first time since the tragedy on Tuesday.
Earlier reports said that 700 tonnes of toxic sodium cyanide were being stored at a warehouse owned by Ruihai International Logistics, where two massive blasts on August 12 killed at least 114 people.
Local residents and journalists reported suffering burns to their skin and seeing mysterious white foam appearing on the streets close to the blast site after Tuesday’s rainfall. There was also light rainfall over the blast site on Wednesday.
However, Bao said official testing around the blast site had shown there were no excessive levels of air or water pollutants.
He said water pollution at the blast site had been well contained and would be sent for special treatment to remove the hazardous quantities of cyanide.
Bao also said he had not experienced any symptoms, such as burns to his skin, even though he had been standing out in the rain at the blast site for about 10 minutes.
None of his colleagues carrying out tests “on the front-line” had shown any burns to their skin or other symptoms, he said
He added that tests on the rain water showed that it was also “normal”.
When pressed about the claims in the CCTV report, Bao said that his environmental protection officials had no access to the centre of the blast site, which was under the control of armed police, so he had no idea of what the unidentified gas might be.
However, he dismissed the latest public concerns, saying no one at the blast site had ever reported suffering from symptoms of chemical poisoning.
Son of China's top safety official taken away at same time as father, media reports
Yang Hui, whose father Yang Dongliang leads China's work safety administration, is a deputy general manager at a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation
Yang Dongliang, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, at a news conference in Beijing in March. His son, Yang Hui, was well connected because of his father. Photo: Reuters
The son of Yang Dongliang, China’s top official on work safety, was taken away for investigation almost at the same time as his father was being scrutinised for alleged violation of Communist Party rules and the law, local media have reported.
His son is Yang Hui, a deputy general manager of the CNOOC Gas & Power Group, a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation. According to The Beijing News, he was taken away while on a business trip in Tianjin, the port city where a warehouse storing dangerous goods exploded last week, killing at least 114 people, with 65 others still missing.
The junior Yang was well connected in Tianjin because of his father, who was deputy mayor between 2001 and 2012, after which he was promoted to head of the State Administration of Work Safety.
There has been no indication from officials whether Yang Dongliang’s detention was linked to the industrial accident, one of the worst in China’s history.
But news portal QQ.com reported the investigation was related to Yang’s tenure at the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which he headed from 2004 to 2009.
The national anti-graft agency conducted a review into losses of state-owned assets in Tianjin last month.
The News suggested the inquiry into Yang was tied to Wu Zhenfang, a retired general manager of China National Offshore Oil Corporation. Authorities said in April that Wu had been placed under party investigation for serious violation of discipline.
The newspaper cited several unidentified sources as saying Yang Hui’s involvement with CNOOC Gas & Power Group dated to 2011, when he was less than 30 years old and secretary of its Communist Party’s Youth League wing.
At the time, his father was working closely with Wu, according to the News report. The two signed a deal to install pipes and supply liquefied natural gas to Tianjin as representatives for the municipal government and CNOOC.
The investigation into Yang Dongliang had been ongoing for six months before authorities announced it on Tuesday, according to the Beijing Youth Daily.
Several people, including party elders, had lodged complaints with party authorities while he was deputy mayor, the report said.
Yang, 61, built his career in the petrochemical industry, starting as an oil field driller and later being named as deputy general manager of Tianjin United Chemical, before being promoted to the municipal government. His experience in the oil and gas sector helped was instrumental in building up the petrochemical sector in the metropolis.
In 2006, after a blast in a workshop at a chemical plant, Yang ordered an inspection to ensure there were no hazardous chemicals.
According to the Qq.com report, several employees in the administration said there were no signs of anything out of the ordinary before Tuesday’s announcement. They all spoke highly of Yang.
Unidentified sources at the administration were quoted as saying he “took the initiative and worked very hard”, and described him as “very practical and very resourceful at work”.
Yang is the sixth member of the party’s Central Committee to fall from grace since the 18th party congress.
Deadly blasts in Tianjin mean Toyota likely to divert vehicle shipments: executive
Shanghai and Dalian ports should have enough capacity to prevent a severe logistical problem for Japanese car manufacturer in world’s biggest auto market
The site of the deadly blasts at the port of Tianjin, which is the main car import terminal for China, the world's biggest auto market. Photo: AP
Toyota Motor Corp could divert shipments from China’s Tianjin port where operations have been disrupted indefinitely after last week’s deadly explosions that have killed at least 114 people.
A senior Beijing-based executive at the Japanese company said on Wednesday that other ports could be used for future shipments.
Shanghai and Dalian ports should have enough capacity to prevent a severe logistical problem for Toyota in the world’s biggest auto market, the executive said.
Global carmakers are facing the partial shutdown of China’s main car import terminal.
“The port of Tianjin will likely be unusable for a long while, although I have no idea at the moment how long these disruptions will last," the official told Reuters, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak with reporters.
“There are a lot of unknowns at this time.”
A company spokesman in Japan confirmed Toyota was considering rerouting cars to other ports.
Investigators have not determined the cause of the blasts at the world’s 10th-largest port, which is the gateway to China’s industrial northeast.
It could take at least a couple of months for normal port operations in Tianjin to resume, research company IHS Automotive said.
In addition to Toyota, carmakers such as Volkswagen and BMW said they had made moves to switch shipments to Shanghai and other ports in the aftermath of the explosions.
Toyota’s two final assembly plants near the port suspended their operations from Monday to Wednesday – in part to assess the damage caused by the blasts.
Toyota produced 432,340 vehicles at the two plants in Tianjin last year, according to IHS.
It estimated a production loss of 2,200 cars per day as a result of the explosions.
The port accounts for about 40 per cent of China’s imported cars, the research firm said.
Owners of firm that ran Tianjin warehouse used connections to gain their permits
Controllers of Ruihai International Logistics had ties with authorities and those in the industry
A team of specialists decked in protective gear and breathing masks enter the core of the explosion site in the port city of Tianjin on Wednesday to conduct investigations and clean up the scene. Photo: Xinhua
One of the main controllers of the logistics company at the centre of last week's deadly warehouse blasts in Tianjin has admitted that his father was the city port's former police chief and that he had good connections with the public security and fire services authorities.
Dong Shexuan - who was detained by police for his involvement in Ruihai International Logistics, which operated the dangerous-goods warehouse - said he held a 45 per cent stake in the company through his high school classmate and Tianjin public servant Shu Zheng.
"I wanted to maintain a low profile because my father worked in [Tianjin Port's] Public Security Bureau, and there would be a negative impact if others knew about it," Xinhua quoted Dong, 34, as saying from the Tianjin No1 Detention Centre.
Dong said his father, Dong Peijun, who died from liver cancer in August last year, had been under investigation.
Chinese soldiers and policemen attend a memorial service for the victims of the Tianjin blasts near the disaster's epicenter on Tuesday. Photo: AP
Another Ruihai controller, former Sinochem Group senior executive Yu Xuewei, held a 55 per cent stake through his wife's cousin Li Liang.
Yu, who worked in Sinochem Tianjin from 1994 to 2012, left the state-owned oil company to form Ruihai with Dong. Yu was familiar with the chemical logistics industry while Dong was well connected with the police and firefighting departments as well as other authorities, Yu told Xinhua.
The pair leveraged their connections to obtain the necessary certifications, Xinhua reported. Ruihai even operated for months without a valid permit after its temporary one expired, before it was issued a formal permit in June.
"But the operation of the dangerous-substances storage was not affected," Yu said.
A clean-up worker decontaminates a residential community near the blast site in Tianjin's Binhai New Area. Photo: Xinhua
A safety review of Ruihai conducted last year and obtained by the 21st Century Business Herald said the selection of the warehouse's site was in line with the city's development plan and rules. The review - by 10 people from Zhongbin Haisheng, one of Tianjin's two licensed safety review agencies - concluded Ruihai had "a rather sound safety management system".
Zhongbin Haisheng has strong government connections, including with the Tianjin Firefighting Institute, which is under the Ministry of Public Security, the Herald report said.
Businesses handling dangerous chemicals are required to site their warehouses at least 1km from public buildings, transport lines or factories.
But Ruihai's warehouse in the Binhai New Area was about 600 metres from a residential area, a highway and a light rail line. All were damaged in the massive blasts last Wednesday night.
Apology but few answers as Tianjin’s mayor finally addresses media - a week after deadly blasts
City's acting party boss admits responsibility as anger mounts over official handling of accident
Tianjin mayor Huang Xingguo takes questions.Photo: Simon Song
Tianjin's top official apologised for the city's deadly blasts as he addressed the media for the first time on Monday a week after the explosions killed at least 114 people.
Despite rising anger over the government's handling of the accident, Huang Xingguo , the acting Communist Party boss and mayor of the port city, stopped short of clearing the air on its cause and fallout.
"The accident has led to great loss of life and property. I feel very sad and guilty," he said. "As the leading official of the city, I have an unavoidable responsibility for the accident."
He also said Tianjin would relocate all warehouses for hazardous chemicals to Nangang, a petrochemical base about 25km from the city centre.
Anger over the official response to the blasts has mounted, with residents taking to the streets to demand compensation for their damaged homes and the public pressing for details on the explosions' likely impact.
However, ownership of Ruihai International Logistics, the company at the centre of the blast, was clarified yesterday, with Xinhua reporting that Dong Shexuan, who held 45 per cent of the company's shares through a friend, was the son of Tianjin Port's public security chief. Another shareholder, Yu Xuewei, held 55 per cent through his wife's cousin Li Liang.
The report said Dong and Yu had been detained. Both had made use of their ties with government agencies.
Zong Guoying, the party boss of Binhai New Area, said Ruihai did not have a licence to handle hazardous chemicals when it was first set up but it acquired one on June 23. He did not explain why the warehouse was allowed to be built less than 1km from a residential area, saying only the authorities would severely punish those responsible, irrespective of their connections.
Huang pledged to build a park and monument at the site to commemorate firefighters who died tackling the accident.
Tianjin deputy mayor He Shushan said there were about 1,300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate, about 500 tonnes of sodium and magnesium, and 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide, among other chemicals, in the warehouse when the explosions took place.
About 150 tonnes of toxic sodium cyanide had been collected, with the rest being burned or spilled in the blasts, He said.
But the city's environmental chief, Wen Wurui, said surrounding air and water quality remained within safe limits.
Meanwhile, a commentary in party mouthpiece People's Daily urged officials to learn from the West in dealing with emergencies. "When facing emergencies with casualties and damage to property, Western countries initially rather overstate the estimated danger or harm, and put the possible number of casualties as higher, not the opposite," it said.
David Bandurski, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project, said that to some extent the commentary was an acknowledgment of the mishandling of information by the authorities. "The entire response … has been indefensibly poor," he said.
Relief workers' protective clothing is sterilised while working on the clean-up operation at the blasts site in Tianjin. Photo: Xinhua
More transparency from the Chinese authorities on the handling and storage of hazardous waste could have mitigated, or possibly even prevented, the disaster in Tianjin, according to a UN expert.
About 700 tonnes of highly toxic sodium cyanide were at the site devastated by major blasts last week, which killed at least 114 people, with fears rising that spreading pollution could cause further suffering.
“The lack of information when needed, information that could have mitigated or perhaps even prevented this disaster, is truly tragic,” said Baskut Tuncak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes.
“Moreover, the reported restrictions on public access to health and safety information and freedom of the press in the aftermath are deeply disturbing, particularly to the extent it risks increasing the number of victims of this disaster,” he added.
Tuncak called on the Communist government to show complete transparency in the investigation of the chemical disaster in the northern port.
Soldiers clear a road at the blasts site amid hundreds of burned out cars. Photo: Xinhua
Clean-up efforts have been complicated by heavy rainfall on the remains of the industrial site, with anxiety in the area mounting over the extent of contamination.
Officials have insisted that the city’s air and water are safe, but locals have voiced scepticism.
Tuncak said China needed to review whether its existing laws on hazardous waste met international standards and underscored that all information about such material must be available and accessible to the public.
The warehouse owner, Ruihai International Logistics, had a licence to handle dangerous chemicals at the time of the blast, but questions have been raised about its credentials.
The site of last week's blasts in Tianjin. Photo: AP
Toyota said at least 67 employees were injured after giant explosions last week in the Chinese city of Tianjin where the carmaker’s factory lines will remain closed for the next few days.
Production at Toyota’s Tianjin subsidiary, including a factory line 70 km away that depends on parts from the main operation, has been halted since the blasts.
“We last confirmed that over 50 employees who live in the surrounding area, including in company accommodation, have been injured,” a company spokesman said in Tokyo.
“The updated number is 67,” the spokesman said.
“Since we have been unable to confirm the safety of the area in the vicinity of the blast, we have decided to keep production offline from August 20 through to August 22,” he added.
A file picture of a Toyota production line in Tianjin. Photo: Reuters
Toyota’s operations had been shut for a week’s summer holiday when the explosions occurred, with production due to restart on Sunday, so there was no immediate impact on production from the disaster.
The main Tianjin factory, which produces several models including the Corolla and Vios sedan, has about 12,000 employees and manufactured 440,000 vehicles last year.
The deadly blasts also damaged a pair of Toyota dealerships that required them to temporarily close, while some other Japanese firms including Panasonic and carmaker Mazda reported minor damage at their operations in Tianjin.
An aerial view of the site of last week's deadly blasts in the port area of Tianjin. Photo: ReutersAuthorities in the Chinese city of Tianjin have finally identified what chemicals were being stored inside the warehouse yard operated by Ruihai International Logistics, which was the scene of last week’s deadly explosions that killed at least 114 people.
They also said they had cleared out 150 tonnes of the highly toxic sodium cyanide, found in the central area of the blast zone, and sent it back to the manufacturers for recycling.
Workers were continuing with the clean-up operation on Thursday at the site of last week's deadly blasts in the Chinese city of Tianjin. File photo: Xinhua
Chemical experts had finished scouring an area within a 3km radius of the epicentre of the blasts and had found 100kg worth of hazardous chemicals, He Shushan, Tianjin’s deputy mayor, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Most of the chemicals have been safely stored in a temporary enclosure built to prevent any further leakage of chemicals.
He said the remaining 150 tonnes of sodium cyanide that had been recovered had been transported back to manufacturers.
The other 550 tonnes of sodium cyanide that was being stored at the site had already exploded.
Environmental protection authorities said that air and surface water pollution levels in the area would not increase and that the spread of pollution had been brought under control.
However, they raised new concerns about the contamination of groundwater and soil, which was more difficult to monitor, and said they would continue to assess the situation.
The blasts last week in Tianjin sent damaging shockwaves through many residential buildings. Photo: AP
Authorities in Tianjin will buy damaged flats near the site of last week's blasts, representatives of owners were told at a closed-door meeting on Thursday.
Owners of flats in dozens of damaged residential buildings were given two options, including selling their homes to the government, according to homeowners briefed by their representatives after meeting Binhai government officials. The flats would be bought at the average per-square-metre market price one week before the disaster, the representatives were told.
The authorities' attitude took a sharp turn a day after hundreds of owners gathered on the street outside the venue of a press conference attended by Tianjin mayor Huang Xingguo, and where Zong Guoying, Communist Party boss of Binhai New Area, the site of the explosions, ruled out buying damaged flats.
Owners could also choose to move back in after the government repaired their houses without charge.
But desperate owners were still sceptical about the government's buy-back offer.
"The government hasn't made the offer public to the media, and we haven't seen any official documents," one affected homeowner said.
"We're not sure whether they're doing this to buy time."
At the meeting, the owners were also urged not to "damage the image of Binhai New Area, Tianjin or the country".
China's fire-safety regime is in need of a review to see that standards are maintained from government-employed to company contracted firefighters. Photo: Xinhua
Of all the graphic images from last week's Tianjin port explosions and fire, perhaps the most heart-rending was of relatives seeking news of the people now known as the "forgotten firemen", who remain unaccounted for a week later.
Two things set these men apart. The first is that they are not elite or regular firefighting forces, but employed by the port's own fire department. The second is that although on the bottom rung of the professional firefighter's ladder, they were the first responders to one of the country's worst industrial accidents. Like the first responders to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, they were to suffer terrible casualties in the catastrophe that unfolded. Apart from at least 114 people killed, 56 firefighters were dead and 68 reported missing, many of them from the Tianjin Port Group's fire department.
Amid constant updates on the fate and welfare of firefighters on the public payroll, frantic relatives of the port's own firefighters were pleading with the authorities for information on what had happened to them, or the return of their bodies if they had died. Sadly for some, their wait for recovery of remains from the blasts and blaze may be in vain. Hopefully, Premier Li Keqiang has at least laid to rest fears that the families of privately employed firefighters would not be compensated fairly, assuring media that all would be treated equally.
Big companies and industrial operations are legally required to recruit and train their own fire departments to deal with emergencies. Despite their critical role, these firefighters are commonly regarded as the lowest level in a three-tier system and do not get the same benefits as top-tier staff controlled by the Ministry of Public Security and local governments.
The many safety concerns raised by this disaster include the outsourcing of emergency services. Ministry of Public Security fire departments are supposed to supervise training, but concerns have been raised about the thoroughness of it - including dealing with volatile chemicals - and also about inexperience and recruitment of those who are underaged. Firefighting is an essential public service. If emergency and first response in hazardous environments are to be delegated to a lower tier, training and equipment must be seen to comply with the highest professional standards. By all accounts, the mainland's fire-safety regime is in need of a review to see that standards are maintained from top to bottom.
‘A normal life is now out of reach’: Residents near Tianjin blast site struggle to come to terms with tragedy
Many survived the explosions in the Chinese port city but find their lives disrupted after losing their homes and loved ones; firms nearby have also stalled, still reeling from the damage
Residents clean up their apartments in the aftermath of an explosion at the Tianjin port in northeastern China's Tianjin. Photo: APWith their homes destroyed in the massive warehouse explosions last week that killed at least 116 people in China’s port city of Tianjin, residents living near the blast site wonder when their lives will return to normal.
“I don’t have a plan now,” said Guo, whose apartment was severely damaged in last Wednesday’s blasts. “A normal life seems too far out of reach.”
Guo, 31, returned to her home on Thursday morning to collect what was left of her belongings. Glass was scattered throughout her apartment, and cash, jewellery and an iPad were missing.
“I never thought there were thieves who would want to make a fortune out of this tragedy,” she said, speaking through a mask that protected her from the stinging air.
One of thousands of residents who live less than 2km from the site of the explosions, Guo is now putting up at a friend’s home nearby as she waits to receive compensation for her losses.
Residents have blamed the accident on the government for its lack of supervision that allowed a warehouse storing hazardous materials to be sited so close to residences.
“My home was bought through the hard work of two generations, but now it’s not worth even a penny,” Guo said.
Guo lost more than just her property. The blasts also claimed the lives of her good friend and her neighbour's one-year-old son, who often visited Guo’s home.
“I want to leave this area, if I can find a job elsewhere,” she said. “I think I’m lucky enough just to survive.”
Injured residents show a picture of their damaged home in Tianjin's Binhai New Area. Photo: Reuters
Another resident, Liu, a Henan native who deals in interior decoration, was lucky to be out when the explosions occurred.
The blasts have affected him in other ways, though. Liu, 40, is more than 300,000 yuan (HK$363,000) in debt from buying his apartment near the blast site.
He paid the full price of the home at a go so that he could move his 14-year-old son’s household registration to Tianjin and have him sit the college entrance examinations there.
“It’s going to take quite a long while for my life to return to normal,” Liu said bitterly.
The explosions affected 17,000 families and more than 170 companies in Tianjin’s Binhai New Area. Many of the affected companies, though most of them covered by insurance, have yet to decide when they will return to production.
One of the factories closest to the blast site is Australian steel product manufacturer BlueScope Butler. Window frames of its office building were severely distorted in the blasts and shards of broken glass were littered all over the floor. The company was awaiting a safety assessment on the damage to its plants.
“We’ve suffered the first impact from the blast already. We can’t afford to suffer another impact by having our staff injured [in the damaged plants],” said employee Zhang Dayong, who is responsible for overseeing safety at the plants.
The company was still figuring out how to deal with the damage and had yet to schedule a date to restart production, Zhang said.
“Before we are back in power, we can’t tell if our equipment is still working,” said Dong, an employee at Sintern Powder Metallurgy, a company about 1.5km from the blast site.
It would take the firm another month to return to production, he said.
A warehouse in Hefei, Anhui province caught fire at noon on Thursday. There were no injuries. Photo: Cnr.cn
There has been another warehouse fire in eastern China, state media reported on Thursday afternoon.
The blaze, in Hefei city in Anhui province, caused no casualties but comes just a week after a chemical warehouse explosions in the port of Tianjin killed 116 and injured 677, with 65 still missing.
The Hefei warehouse blaze broke out after noon and quickly spread to a neighbouring express transit station and a nearby paint warehouse, Anhuinews.com reported
The report did not say how extensive the damage was to the other facilities. However, the Hefei Fire Brigade’s said on its official weibo account the fire destroyed an area of more than 700 square metres.
It is unclear what was stored at the warehouse or what caused the fire.
Ten teams of firefighters and 21 fire trucks were sent to the scene and the fire brigade said the fire was under control within an hour. However, the warehouse was smouldering for at least two hours and the thick plumes of smoke drew many onlookers, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Authorities are investigating the cause.
Firemen battle the warehouse blaze in Hefei. Investigators were trying to find out what was stored in the building and how the fire broke out. Photo: Cnr.cn
Rabbits in a cage placed by authorities to demonstrate the air quality at the Binhai New Area in Tianjin. Photos: Reuters
Tianjin authorities have placed animals in cages at the site of the Tianjin explosions in a bid to reassure the public over the air quality.
Following the advice of experts with the rescue operation effort, soldiers from the PLA Beijing military command area have set laid down the brightly coloured cages containing rabbits, chickens and pigeons, Shanghai-based online news outlet Thepaper.cn reported.
Tianjin Deputy Mayor He Shushan said at least 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide were being stored along with other hazardous goods at the facility owned by Ruihai International Logistics that caught fire and led to two massive explosions on August 12.
A soldier checks chickens and rabbits in cages, before they are placed by the authorities.
Local environmental authorities insist the chemicals are being contained in the clean-up. But photos of the animals contrasted sharply with those of rescue workers and investigators on the scene, all wearing chemical protection suits.
The animals in their cages at the blast site.
“Thank you for the hard-working animals,” one Weibo user said in a post. “Or actually we could just send officials from the Tianjin government to spend days there, and all the rumours [over leaked hazardous chemicals] would be clear.”
