I think you are confusing calcium chloride with calcium carbide.
However, even calcium carbide does not "burn when touched by water." It dissolves rather benignly, except for the acetylene gas produced, which then can go "bang" if ignited. This is how a "carbide cannon" works. Many moons ago, I had one. :-)
Now, calcium chloride does dissolve in exothermic fashion, so, maybe if stores of both chemicals are in close proximity and water is added... Do we have a chemical engineer on FR who can enlighten us further?
Actually I caught the chloride/carbide mistake myself. In fact I remember as a child my father had a calcium carbide miner’s lamp which he showed me how to use. We put a little cc in the can, put on the lid, introduced a little water, then set fire to the gas coming out of the pin hole nozzle. Of course I guess that could be dangerous if there was methane in the mine. Actually, he probably picked this up when he was living in Arizona and running a trap line winters, and cowboy work summers. They mostly have hard rock mining there, so perhaps not so dangerous as eastern coal mines.
The death toll is now up to 84 with 720 hospitalized, over 50 critical or serious. Also 25+ firefighters dead. The Chinese have also admitted to the serious environmental issue of what has happened to the 700 tons of sodium cyanide that was there and also produces explosive gases. My question—was the cyanide coming in or being shipped out, and if out, where to?