The devastating blast that rocked the Chinese city of Tianjin late Wednesday night may have looked like a mushroom cloud, but it wasn’t nuclear.
That, so far, is one of the only things that’s clear about the 11:30 p.m. explosion and that the China Earthquake Administration registered the blast at a magnitude of 2.3.
CCTV, China’s state-run news service, reported that at least 44 people died in the blast, and at least 520 were hospitalized, 66 of whom are in critical condition. An unknown number are still trapped under the wreckage, and rescue efforts are under way.
How did this explosion happen?
The point of explosion, Tianjin, a major commercial port of about 7 million people 70 miles from Beijing, is a key base for the production of petrochemicals, automobiles, and heavy industry.
Ruihai International Logistics, which operated the warehouse where the explosion originated, is authorized to handle hazardous materials, which has fueled speculation that the blast was a chemical explosion. The company moves around 1 million tons of cargo a year.
Greenpeace Asia say they have acquired information from the Tianjin Tanggu Environmental Monitoring Station. Chemicals stored by Ruihai International Logistics include sodium cyanide (NaCN), toluene diisocyanate (TDI), and calcium carbide (CaC2). All of these chemicals are hazardous to human health upon physical contact. In particular, sodium cyanide is highly toxic, and the other two items react violently when they come into contact with water, with the risk of exploding.
Tianjin will likely see rain tomorrow, so the existence of these chemicals poses a significant threat to rescue efforts and anyone nearby.
Police first detained one representative of Ruihai Logistics for questioning in an effort to determine the cause of the blast. Then, on Thursday morning local time, company executives were taken into police custody.
Residents in Tianjin said the air in the city after the explosion had a disturbing odor, and they worried they could be inhaling harmful fumes. But Tianjin Television isn’t reporting much about the disaster.
According to reports, the government is covering up the harmful details. All regular programming has been replaced by Korean soap operas to calm people down and give no valuable information to help their citizens.
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