The people of the area near the site of the explosions that rocked Wednesday Tianjin Port in north-east China, were being evacuated Saturday, August 15, for fear of contamination by toxic chemicals, announced the official news agency Xinhua. The last official toll reported 104 dead and 720 injured. Twenty-one firefighter among the victims and others are missing, making the event the most deadly disaster in China for firefighters for sixty years.
New explosions have sounded in the morning on the affected port area, projecting into the air a thick column of black smoke, while the authorities are still trying to control fires caused by Wednesday’s explosions. And, according to Beijing News, armed police began evacuating the population within a radius of three kilometers around the site following the discovery of sodium cyanide, a chemical that can be fatal.
According to the National Research and Safety Institute (INRS), sodium and potassium cyanide are not flammable or combustible. However, in the presence of acids and acid-reacting products, they hydrolyze to release hydrogen cyanide, a highly flammable and toxic gas. When these products are involved in a fire, they may decompose on heating, release hydrogen cyanide and nitrogen oxides.
dangerous chemicals
About 6300 people were evacuated since Wednesday, Xinhua said.
No official explanation was given on the causes of explosions. If the company Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics, warehouse owner, is not able to specify the nature of those products which were in transit, the official media confirmed that hazardous chemicals there were indeed These
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According to the Tianjin police, the warehouse contained mainly nitrate ammonium, potassium nitrate and calcium carbide at the time of explosion. Chemists experts explained that calcium carbide could, in contact with water, forming acetylene, a highly explosive gas.
Now the first fire crews, arrived on the scene before explosions to extinguish a fire, would have sprinkled the length of hazardous chemicals stocks, unaware that they could detonate on contact with water.
biological weapons experts
A team of more than 200 military specialists of nuclear, bacteriological and chemical came to carry out cleaning operations, Xinhua said.
The disaster recalled the poor record of the second largest economy in terms of industrial safety regulations are often ignored for reasons of profitability and controlled implementation lax.
In July, 15 people were killed and over 10 others injured in the explosion of an illegal site storage of explosives for fireworks in Hebei Province, in the northeast of China. In August 2014, 146 people, according to official figures, had died in the explosion of an auto parts plant in Kunshan, near Shanghai.
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