China's Little Blowup...

[LongBlade]

Hopefully that bodes well for the number involved in the blast.

[LongBlade]

Drone footage. Looks like some kind of news outlet.

[OJsDad]

with the way the Chinese are locking down all non official discussions on this, I wonder if the death toll is a lot higher than they will ever claim.

[endfire79]

Was watching the footage last night, unbelievable...  I can only imagine how worse this would have been had it happened during the daytime with a lot more people around.

Some of that video footage is crazy close range.  20 tons of TNT isn't a little  blowup when you're that close.  There's a security cam video of somebody in a building checking the front doors right when the blast hits him - crazy. 

It's a small world, our neighbors (and friends) are from Tianjin.  Worlds 10th busiest port.  I'm wondering if the backlash from this will pressure the authorities to enforce proper safety procedures at several other of the major port cities there.  The

I've seen vids of gas explosions in the past, usually at some plant outside of the city. I remember a year back seeing a vid about a gas explosion in Taiwan right in the middle of the city - straight out of a disaster movie  :o

[Staggerwing]

I suspect that some of the media clampdown is because the ruling leadership apparatus thinks ordinary folk will be afraid to go outside to work and shop due to fear of all the toxic materials that have been introduced into the already suspect air over much of the urban Chinese mainland were those folks to learn of what actually happened.

[BanzaiCat]

I used this vid I found on YouTube in a couple of Natural Gas training courses I put together:

[Staggerwing]

They certainly pounded that 'Fear of the BLEVE' into us back in my EMS days. Even gas grills that had been sitting in the sun made me nervous for a while.

[jomni]

This one happened in taiwan.

[Sir Slash]

Odd thing is, after the explosion the air over the city is probably cleaner now than before. It's China after all.

[mirth]

So some of the shit stored in that warehouse (calcium carbide for example) reacts with water in nasty ways. Fighting the fire may have contributed to the explosions.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/08/14/uk-china-blast-idUKKCN0QJ01H20150814

Lei Jinde, the deputy propaganda department head of China's fire department, a part of the Ministry of Public Security, told state-backed news website ThePaper.cn that the first group of fire fighters on the scene had used water. "We knew there was calcium carbide inside but we didn't know whether it had already exploded," he said.

Well fuck it then. Just start hosing it down with water.

[Nefaro]

This vid was obviously taken by someone closer to the explosion than the original.  Complete with breaking window glass.   Good thing he ducked for cover.

His expletives describe the situation well, IMO.   :o

This one is pretty damn close:

There must've been some very large containers with volatile pressurized stuff sitting out there.  :o  I suppose a large fire had broken out, and the firefighters couldn't put it out before those went up (judging by the many firefighter deaths).

[endfire79]

An image of the crater at the blast center in Tianjin.





Now see how close it was to residential and commercial highrises... 

[Gusington]

Wow  :o

[GDS_Starfury]

I havent seen a hole that big since the last time Mirth bent over.  :o

[Sir Slash]

Gonne need a whole shit-load of new screen doors over in China.