China will launch a nationwide inspection of businesses engaged in risky chemicals and explosives after the explosions in Tianjin which killed at least 56 people, including 21 firefighters, the State Council said on Friday.
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The death toll included 17 firefighters sent in after the first blast, and would have been much higher in a more populated area.
Greenpeace said: “According to the Tianjin Tanggu environmental monitoring station, hazardous chemicals stored by the company concerned include sodium cyanide, toluene diisocyanate and calcium carbide, all of which pose direct threats to human health on contact”.
Earlier on Friday, about 32 hours after the explosions, rescuers pulled a trapped firefighter out of rubble.
Photographs showed government chemical warfare specialists at the still smouldering site wearing protective clothes and gas masks. The facility was also licensed to handle calcium carbide, a unsafe compound known to release flammable gases when mixed with water.
An explosion could be caused if firefighters sprayed the calcium carbide with water, they said.
“Out of consideration for toxic substances spreading, the masses nearby have been asked to evacuate”, the state Xinhua news agency reported.
“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.
A fresh blaze erupted on Saturay in a warehouse in China’s Tianjin city that was destroyed by an explosion that claimed 85 lives, the authorities said.
David Leggett, a chemical safety expert based in California, said the acetylene explosion could have detonated the ammonium nitrate.
A series of up to seven smaller explosions were also heard this morning, 15 August, with small fires breaking out near where the blast took place on Wednesday.
At least 700 individuals were debilitated, more than 71 critically, the Tianjin authorities said on their Weibo microblog, and to discover the endorsed Xinhua information company said couple of fires remained as using. Lei Jinde, deputy propaganda department head, admitted that the first group of fire fighters on the scene had used water.
Two huge blasts, including one with the force of 21 tons of TNT, came just 30 seconds apart.
The warehouse had been built four years ago as a storage place and distribution center for containers filled with risky goods at Tianjin Port. It is owned by Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai worldwide Logistics Company.
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Toyota spokesman Itsuki Kurosu said more than 50 of its employees in Tianjin were among the injured, though the vehicle maker was still confirming the extent of the injuries.
