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Tianjin Explosions Point to Risk of Storing Toxic Chemicals Tianjin Explosions Point to Risk of Storing Toxic Chemicals
(about 7 hours later)
TIANJIN, China — This bustling port city about a 90-minute drive from the Chinese capital confronted scenes of death and devastation on Thursday — huge gray plumes of smoke, vast parking lots of charred vehicles, blocks of high-rises with blown-out windows — and questions about what had caused the terrifying explosions at a warehouse storing a witches’ brew of toxic chemicals. TIANJIN, China — Chinese leaders scrambled on Thursday to contain the fallout from an apocalyptic fire in this major port city that appeared to reflect an enormous regulatory failure, caused by a witch’s brew of toxic chemicals housed within a mile of thickly populated areas.
As the fatalities reached 50 from the blasts on Wednesday night, rescue workers combed the rubble of the city’s flattened warehouse district for bodies while hundreds of people crowded hospitals. Throughout the day, hundreds more lined up to donate blood in the wilting heat. President Xi Jinping personally ordered subordinates to ensure that all unaccounted-for victims were found after the Wednesday night disaster, and the army sent more than 200 hazardous-chemical specialists in protective suits to investigate.
The blasts, at a company licensed to store hazardous chemicals, left more than 500 people wounded, 52 of them critically, and produced shock waves felt for miles. But authorities also sought to constrict the flow of information as many traumatized citizens fumed over how such a disaster could happen and expressed frustration over what they called a lack of reliable guidance before or after the fire.
Many of the wounded were hit by flying glass and other debris as thousands of apartment windows blew in, some more than a mile from the explosions. They wondered if even the air was safe because of the smoke, still billowing hours later from vestiges of the inferno, which destroyed an industrial zone near the port. Many people wore masks.
At least 12 of the dead were firefighters who had responded to earlier reports of a blaze at the chemical storage site run by Ruihai International Logistics, a four-year-old company that unloads and stores hazardous cargo, the state news media and government officials said. “Right now, we don’t know anything,” said Sun Meirong, 52, an office cleaner who descended 13 flights of stairs with her 1-year-old grandson after the explosions blew in her apartment windows and front door.
Officials have not explained precisely how firefighters sought to extinguish the initial blaze. But at least some of the stored chemicals were known to produce flammable gas when wet, raising the possibility that the firefighters might have inadvertently contributed to the disaster if they sprayed the flames with water. “There were two or three thousand people living in that neighborhood, and they could have been notified earlier to evacuate,” said Wang Dong, 55, a taxi driver who was struck in the head when his apartment door violently unhinged. “I’m not sure why they did nothing at all to alert us.”
On Thursday afternoon, fires at the site continued to produce a steady cloud of smoke after Tianjin officials, unsure about the nature of the chemicals, decided to let the blazes burn out on their own. The state news media also reported that a military team of specialists in handling chemicals had been sent to Tianjin. Questions loomed over the precise reasons the chemicals had ignited, detonating in frightening fireballs that registered on earthquake scales, engulfed hundreds of new cars awaiting export and shattered windows in high-rises a mile away.
Residents of the Binhai district, frustrated by the lack of reliable information, said they were unsure whether the air was safe, and many people continued to wear disposable face masks throughout the day. Thursday evening, the authorities said at least 50 people had died, including 12 firefighters, with hundreds hospitalized.
“Right now, we don’t know anything,” said Sun Meirong, 52, an office cleaner who trudged down 13 flights of stairs to safety with her 1-year-old grandson after the explosions blew in the windows and front door of her apartment. At least one chemical known to have been stockpiled at the site, calcium carbide, can emit flammable gases when it becomes wet. Some outside experts speculated that firefighters, in their effort to douse the flames, may have inadvertently contributed to the explosions.
The devastation was worst in the port area, a sparsely populated expanse of warehouses and parking lots nearly 40 miles from the heart of Tianjin. Had the blast occurred during the day, the death toll would have most likely been far higher. Favorable winds on Thursday also shielded residents from greater harm by blowing the toxic plume out to sea. “If enough water gets in there, calcium carbide is going to very quickly decompose,” said Chris Weber, president and chief executive of Dr. Hazmat Inc., a hazardous-chemical consulting concern in Longmont, Colo. “The most likely and most violent reaction would be the calcium carbide.”
Ruihai’s website was inaccessible, and calls to the company were met with a busy signal. Also inaccessible was the website for the Tianjin Administration for Industry and Commerce, the agency that collects information about companies, their executives and shareholders. In a social media post, the agency said the blast had forced it to close down temporarily. Many hospital patients were injured by shattered glass. Throughout the day, hundreds of others lined up to donate blood in the wilting heat.
According to the Tianjin Tanggu Environmental Monitoring Station, the company stored a collection of toxic industrial chemicals, including sodium cyanide, toluene diisocyanate and calcium carbide. The company was also licensed to handle highly combustible substances such as compressed and liquefied natural gas. The disaster began late Wednesday, when firefighters in Tianjin’s Binhai district responded to reports of a blaze at the chemical storage site, run by Ruihai International Logistics. State news media and government officials said it was a four-year-old company that unloads and stores hazardous cargo.
In a statement on Thursday, Greenpeace warned that many of the substances posed worrying threats to human health. It said that sodium cyanide, a compound used in mining, is especially toxic, while toluene diisocyanate, used to make polyurethane products, is a carcinogen and highly explosive. On Thursday afternoon, the site still smoldered as Tianjin officials, unsure about the nature of the chemicals, let the blaze extinguish on its own.
With rain forecast for Friday, Greenpeace warned about the danger of airborne pollutants seeping into groundwater. The devastation was worst in the port area, a sparsely populated expanse of warehouses and parking lots nearly 40 miles from the heart of Tianjin. Had the blast occurred during the day, the death toll would have most likely been far higher. Favorable winds on Thursday may also have shielded residents from greater harm by blowing much of the toxic plume toward the Bohai Sea.
The disclosure that dangerous chemicals were stored less than a mile from dense residential areas raised questions about the government’s role in monitoring operations at the site. Ruihai’s website was inaccessible, and calls to the company were met with a busy signal. Also inaccessible was the website for the Tianjin Administration for Industry and Commerce, the agency that collects information about companies, their executives and shareholders. In a social media post, the agency said the blast had forced it to close temporarily.
Middle-class Chinese, increasingly aware of the perils of chemical plants and storage depots in urban areas, have in recent years organized huge street protests demanding that such facilities be relocated to less populated areas. According to the Tianjin Tanggu Environmental Monitoring Station, calcium carbide was one of several toxic industrial chemicals stored by the company. The others included sodium cyanide, which can produce hydrogen cyanide, a volatile and flammable liquid; and toluene diisocyanate, which can also react violently in the presence of water.
It appears that officials in Tianjin were aware of the risks. In recent weeks, officials with the city’s Administration of Work Safety met with a number of local chemical companies and asked them to ensure the safety of the substances on their premises, citing summer weather that included “extreme heat, high humidity and heavy rain,” according to an Aug. 6 posting on the agency’s website. The company was also licensed to handle highly combustible substances such as compressed and liquefied natural gas.
At a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Wen Wurui, a senior environmental official, played down the threat of contaminated air, saying emission readings in the city had dropped to safe levels in the hours after the initial blasts. In a statement on Thursday, Greenpeace warned that the chemicals threatened human health. It said that sodium cyanide, used in mining, is especially toxic, while toluene diisocyanate, used to make polyurethane products, is a carcinogen.
“The pollution will mostly spread to the Bohai Sea, and it will have no effect on Beijing,” he said, referring to waters east of Tianjin. With rain forecast for Friday, Greenpeace also warned about the danger of airborne pollutants seeping into groundwater.
As the extent of the disaster became apparent on Thursday, government officials moved quickly to control the flow of information. Comments on social media criticizing the government were promptly deleted, and for much of the day, the city’s main news channel played Korean soap operas, prompting ridicule on social media. At a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Wen Wurui, a senior environmental official, played down the threat of contaminated air, saying emission readings had dropped to safe levels.
One man who claimed to be an employee of the channel, Tianjin TV, took the rare step of openly castigating the government on social media. The man said that the station had sent 100 reporters into the field but that the authorities had insisted that only reports from central government news outlets like CCTV be used. The Tianjin Internet Police issued a warning that those who spread rumors about the fire would be “severely dealt with according to the law.”
In another posting, Yang Anyi, a local university student, ridiculed broadcasts that featured government officials, including Tianjin’s mayor, Huang Xingguo, and President Xi Jinping, who urged rescue workers to wage an “all-out effort” to save the injured and contain the fire. Comments on social media criticizing the government were promptly deleted, and for much of the day the city’s main news channel played Korean soap operas, prompting ridicule on social media.
“Why the hell give him such big coverage while he is not the one who got injured!” she wrote. One man who claimed to be an employee of the channel, Tianjin TV, took the rare step of openly castigating the government on social media. The man said that the station had sent 100 reporters into the field but that only central government news accounts could be used.
The Tianjin Internet Police issued a warning that those who spread rumors about the accident would be “severely dealt with according to the law.” Middle-class Chinese, increasingly aware of the perils of urban chemical plants and storage depots, have in recent years organized huge street protests demanding that such facilities be relocated.
On the streets of Binhai, tensions seemed to rise with the stifling August heat. At Taida Hospital, where scores of the injured were taken, grieving relatives assaulted foreign journalists, and some residents criticized what they said was an inadequate government response. It appears that officials in Tianjin were aware of the risks. In recent weeks, officials with the city’s Administration of Work Safety met with local chemical companies and asked them to ensure the safety of their premises, citing summer weather that included “extreme heat, high humidity and heavy rain,” according to an Aug. 6 posting on the agency’s website.
“There were two or three thousand people living in that neighborhood, and they could have been notified earlier to evacuate,” said Wang Dong, 55, a taxi driver who sustained a head injury when the door of his apartment blew off its hinges. “I’m not sure why they did nothing at all to alert us.”
At Qihang Jiayuan, an area of 30-story apartment buildings, a wearied security guard argued with residents desperate to check on their apartments as a dog, perhaps separated from its owners, ambled anxiously along the glass-strewn boulevard.
Many residents said they would stay with relatives elsewhere in the city, but Wang Jinxue, 55, a laborer from nearby Hebei Province, said he was unsure where to go because the blasts had destroyed the company dormitory where he lived.
Dressed only in his underwear, a bandage wrapped around his head, he stared blankly when asked where he was headed. “I’ve got to go find my fellow workers,” he said, limping off.