"Deadly fireball blasts in China leave scores dead, hundreds injured - AFP/CNA 13 August 2015
The death toll from massive explosions at an industrial area in the Chinese port of Tianjin has risen to 50, the city government said on Thursday (Aug 13).
Twelve firefighters were among the dead, while more than 700 people had been hospitalised, 71 of them seriously injured.
A Channel NewsAsia reporter at the scene saw shattered glass up to ten kilometres from the blast site, after a shipment of explosives detonated in a warehouse, raining debris on the city and starting huge fires.
Images showed a monumental blast soaring into the air, walls of flame enveloping buildings, ranks of burned-out cars, and shipping containers scattered like children's building blocks.
Paramedics stretchered the wounded into the city's hospitals as doctors bandaged up victims, many of them covered in blood after the impact of the explosion was felt for several kilometres, even being picked up by a Japanese weather satellite.
Scores of firefighters were already on the scene before the explosion, responding to reports of a fire, and at one city hospital a doctor wept over the remains of a firefighter still in uniform, his skin blackened from smoke, as he was wheeled past, along with two other bodies.
In July this year, 15 people were killed and more than a dozen injured when an illegal fireworks warehouse exploded in northern Hebei province.
And at least 71 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."
A tragic disaster. Will be useful to find out what are the root causes and prevent it from recurring.
Lessons for me are:
1. fire safety when dealing with chemical and inflammable materials MUST be top of mind concern and professional knowledge to handle them properly as well as how to contain and fight any fires that broke up are basic requirement in such facilities;
2. in the Chinese news sites and online forums, it seems that the firefighters were 'ordered' to rush into the scene to try to 'fight' the fires while in most advance and prepared countries, the fire fighting services would have cordoned off the site and 'wait for the explosions to burn off'. Of course, this is debatable IF for some 'valid' reasons, the authorities had the knowledge and skills to 'cut the fuels off' in order of isolating those inflammable and combustible explosive materials from the centre of the fires!;
3. the poor track records of China in this area over the last few years surely do not induce much confidence with the residents about how well the 'next', touch wood and hope it will not happen anytime soon, such disaster will be handled!
Is this the price of 'overly rapid urbanization' to the extent of 'putting dangerous industries WITHIN a city limit'?
RIP to the dead and condolences to those who had lost a family member, relative or friend in this disaster.
The death toll from massive explosions at an industrial area in the Chinese port of Tianjin has risen to 50, the city government said on Thursday (Aug 13).
Twelve firefighters were among the dead, while more than 700 people had been hospitalised, 71 of them seriously injured.
A Channel NewsAsia reporter at the scene saw shattered glass up to ten kilometres from the blast site, after a shipment of explosives detonated in a warehouse, raining debris on the city and starting huge fires.
Images showed a monumental blast soaring into the air, walls of flame enveloping buildings, ranks of burned-out cars, and shipping containers scattered like children's building blocks.
Paramedics stretchered the wounded into the city's hospitals as doctors bandaged up victims, many of them covered in blood after the impact of the explosion was felt for several kilometres, even being picked up by a Japanese weather satellite.
Scores of firefighters were already on the scene before the explosion, responding to reports of a fire, and at one city hospital a doctor wept over the remains of a firefighter still in uniform, his skin blackened from smoke, as he was wheeled past, along with two other bodies.
In July this year, 15 people were killed and more than a dozen injured when an illegal fireworks warehouse exploded in northern Hebei province.
And at least 71 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."
A tragic disaster. Will be useful to find out what are the root causes and prevent it from recurring.
Lessons for me are:
1. fire safety when dealing with chemical and inflammable materials MUST be top of mind concern and professional knowledge to handle them properly as well as how to contain and fight any fires that broke up are basic requirement in such facilities;
2. in the Chinese news sites and online forums, it seems that the firefighters were 'ordered' to rush into the scene to try to 'fight' the fires while in most advance and prepared countries, the fire fighting services would have cordoned off the site and 'wait for the explosions to burn off'. Of course, this is debatable IF for some 'valid' reasons, the authorities had the knowledge and skills to 'cut the fuels off' in order of isolating those inflammable and combustible explosive materials from the centre of the fires!;
3. the poor track records of China in this area over the last few years surely do not induce much confidence with the residents about how well the 'next', touch wood and hope it will not happen anytime soon, such disaster will be handled!
Is this the price of 'overly rapid urbanization' to the extent of 'putting dangerous industries WITHIN a city limit'?
RIP to the dead and condolences to those who had lost a family member, relative or friend in this disaster.
No comments:
Post a Comment