World
China defended on Friday fire fighters who initially hosed water on a blaze in a warehouse storing volatile chemicals, a response foreign experts said could have contributed to two huge blasts that killed 54 people, writes Reuters.
More than a dozen firefighters were among those killed by the explosions at the port in the northeastern city of Tianjin on Wednesday night, state media said. About 700 people were injured, 71 of them seriously, yet another accident in a nation all too familiar with industrial disasters.
Columns of smoke from fires still burning on Friday rose from the site amid crumpled shipping containers, thousands of torched cars and burnt-out shells of port buildings. Rescuers pulled one survivor from the wreckage, a city official told reporters, who was later identified as a fire fighter.
The warehouse, designed to house dangerous and toxic chemicals, was storing mainly ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate and calcium carbide at the time, according to police.
The official Xinhua news agency has said several containers in the warehouse caught fire before the explosions. The State Council, China's cabinet, said a nationwide inspection of dangerous chemicals and explosives would be launched in response to the disaster, along with a crackdown on illegal activities to strengthen industry safety.
"The disastrous explosions at the ... hazardous materials warehouse at the Tianjin port caused huge loss of life and injuries, economic damages and social impact," the State Council work safety commission said on its website.
"The lessons are extremely profound," it said.
The BBC writes that once the fire is extinguished, the chemical containers will be moved to a safety zone, away from the heat, so that the contents can be analysed. Tianjin's residents remain nervous, he adds, with some posting concerns online about the environmental impact and suspicions that the public may not be hearing the full truth.
The head of Tianjin's environmental protection bureau, Wen Wurui, said pollution levels were being monitored and other officials insisted any contaminants had been contained.
Fires are still sending plumes of smoke over the destroyed buildings, burned-out vehicles and crumpled shipping containers that bore the brunt of the explosions.
