12 firefighters
among 50 dead in Chinese port city explosions
Hannah Gardner,
Special for USA
According to Wang Xiaojie, head of the
emergency department of Teda
Hospital Tianjin , with a population of 15 million, is located about
90 miles southeast of Beijing
Residents posted photos of blown out
windows and doors on social media. Videos posted the night before showed a huge
fire ball surging into the sky and individual explosions like fireworks going
off around it.
“Tianjin looks
like the end of the world has come this morning," resident Wang Kun said
Thursday. "It’s like what you see in Hollywood
blockbusters,” he said.
A Weibo user with the name Dawanzi said the
area looked like a war zone. "The explosions, the putrid air, dead bodies
everywhere, people running around and crying."
Weibo is similar to Twitter, which is
blocked on mainland China
The scale of the destruction in the area
immediately around the blast sites and the size of the fire lead many on Weibo
to believe the death toll could climb higher.
People as far away as Beijing
The first blast, which occurred around
11:30 p.m. local time Wednesday night, was equivalent to that caused by 3 tons
of TNT.
The second explosion, triggered by the
first fire, was equivalent to 21 tons of explosive material, the National
Earthquake Bureau said.
Executives for Ruihai Logistics, the
company which owns the warehouse where the inferno originated, were arrested,
police said. The website for Ruihai Logistics said the company is approved to
handle hazardous materials.
Ruihai Logistic oversaw a
46,000-square-meter facility that housed warehouses for storing and
distributing hazardous materials,according to its website, Reuters reported.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said six
battalions of firefighters had brought the ensuing fire under control, although
it was still burning in the early hours of Thursday. Authorities announced they
suspended further efforts to douse the blaze because they had not been given
clear information as to the nature of the potentially hazardous materials being
stored in the warehouses.
Rescue teams detected high levels of sulfur
dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides as far as a half-mile from the
scene, Xinhua reported. A 217-member team of specialists in nuclear, biological
and chemical materials was brought in to begin assessing and cleaning up toxic
material, the agency reported.
The city has set up 17 monitoring stations
for air, and another five for water. Three sewage outlets to the sea have been
closed, said Wen Wurui, head of the city's environmental protection bureau, at
the press conference.
Several buildings were destroyed in the
blasts, and more than 1,000 new cars were left charred in a nearby parking lot,
the Beijing News reported.
As many as 3,500 nearby residents have been
relocated to 10 schools because of damage to their home. The number could reach
6,000 by Thursday night, Zhang Yong, head of the Binhai district government,
said at a press conference, according to Xinhua.
Accidents of this nature are not uncommon
in China
A spokesman for Tianjin 's
port said China China
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/08/13/firefighters-dead-china-explosions/31598019/
Structure of the Lead：
Who-
not given
When-
Thursday
What-
the explosion in Tianjin
Why-
people who work in warehouse were so careless
Where-
Tianjin
How-
horrible and nervous
Keywords:
1.
shrapnel-彈片
2.
skull-頭骨
3.
fracture-使…骨折；破裂
4.
putrid-腐臭的
5.
equivalent-相等的
6.
inferno-地獄
7.
battalion-軍隊；營
8.
douse-澆熄
9.
sulfur-硫磺
10.
sewage-汙穢物
