Chemical warfare teams race to clear deadly sodium cyanide (truncated)

ABC.NET.AU ^ | 8/16/2015

[wtd]

• Tianjin: Chemical warfare teams race to clear deadly sodium cyanide amid fears rain could generate new toxic gas cloud Tianjin: Chemical warfare teams race to clear deadly sodium cyanide amid fears rain could generate new toxic gas cloud Chinese soldiers including chemical warfare specialists are racing to clear hazardous materials at the Tianjin blast site ahead of forecast rain which could generate new clouds of toxic ... most of them fire fighters, state … ABC Online · 7 minutes ago

[FatherofFive]

Muslims should not be allowed in this country. Their religion cannot be trusted.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33844084

How did the blasts happen?

They took place at a warehouse at the port which was reportedly storing “dangerous and chemical goods”. The building is owned by Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics.

Ruihai Logistics was reportedly set up in 2011, and it handles about one million tonnes of cargo annually. Chinese media said that at least one member of Ruihai’s staff had been arrested.

Officials insist it is not yet clear what triggered the two blasts, about 30 seconds apart.

Before the explosions, many firefighters were already at the scene trying to control a blaze, AFP reports.

There have been suggestions that water sprayed on some of the chemicals could have led to the blasts.

Calcium carbide, known to be at the site, reacts with water to create the highly explosive acetylene.

[GeronL]

China needs some better zoning regulations

[GeronL]

great idea to store that stuff in a warehouse in a crowded port city

[RetiredTexasVet]

Something fishy about the whole thing. I don’t think we are getting anything but a diversion set of events.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, it’s not as if they were putting melamine in baby formula, or “forgetting” to put a foundation under a multistorey apartment building...

[GeronL]

lol

[PghBaldy]

One issue is they lie about things they don’t “need” to lie about.

[Mark17]

Something fishy about the whole thing. I don’t think we are getting anything but a diversion set of events.

Did anyone expect the Chinese to tell the truth about it? If there were not people around to record the explosions, the Chinese might deny it even happened.

[PA Engineer]

Officials insist it is not yet clear what triggered the two blasts, about 30 seconds apart.

There appears to have been three explosions. The last was probably an air fuel blast. The second explosion had the shock wave. It was reported that the third blast sucked air back into the fireball as evidenced by debris pulled back in.

I've been to a few gas explosions. Some of them very large. I have never seen such a large crater from a surface explosion. Something just doesn't seem right about this.

[PA Engineer]

Something fishy about the whole thing. I don’t think we are getting anything but a diversion set of events.

I strongly agree.

[datura]

Chem forces wearing nothing more than masks around cyanide?

Doesn’t speak well of the PLA.

[SWAMP-C1PHER]

I think I’m going to go green. After they clean this stuff up, load it into planes and dump it over Mecca. Ultimate recycling.

[Cvengr]

Between the Colorado EPA Mining accident and the Tianjin explosion, a rather large volume of old processing materials have now vanished and placed back into the environment. I wonder how that will treat the world market prices for the processing of gold containing ores.

[Cvengr]

While I don’t see any connection between the 2 events, I’d surmise the crater might have been caused by a ruptured fire main, which might have given a volume of reactant to a larger chemical reaction. The explosion might have consumed much of the product and left a sink hole in its wake.

Unless there were UG storage tanks of some reactants which were also consumed by the event.

[Cvengr]

I suspect a lot of information isn’t being accurately reported,...e.g. from http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1849892/blast-survivor-found-shipping-container-chinese-city-tianjin

“Han Fengqun, 56, was found at 2pm in a shipping container 50 metres from the centre of the blast area, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

He was found by troops trained in chemical defence and warfare under a pile of shipping containers that had been buckled by the force of the blasts on Wednesday night.

They had been searching through the containers by torchlight before they found him, the report said.

He was still conscious and able to say a few words before he was taken to a military hospital.”

[Cvengr]

Before and After photos of the site:

[Pikachu_Dad]

If a box car is 8ft x 40 ft. Resized picture to 1600 pix x 1200 px. That made a box car about 8x40 px. The circle fitting the crater is 330x330 px. So the crater is approximately 330 ft in diameter.

[Pikachu_Dad]

Apple map image from before the blast. 500ft scale about an inch