BBC Reports " According to Chinese state media, the blasts occurred when a shipment of explosives blew up in the port city at about 23:30 (16:30 GMT). Pictures and video shared on social media showed flames lighting up the sky and damage to nearby buildings. Shockwaves could apparently be felt several kilometres away from Tianjin. The Editor of the BBC's Chinese Service, Raymond Li, says all indications are that it is an industrial accident. The first explosion was followed by another 30 seconds later. An official Chinese seismic agency said the force of the first explosion was equivalent to three tons of TNT, the second was 21 tons. Further blasts were subsequently triggered nearby, Xinhua state news agency said. Ms Yang, an eyewitness, told local media she was out shopping when "suddenly from behind there was a big fireball and explosion"." Well shit. Not as big as Halifax, but damn.
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/...sion_reported_in_chinese_port_city_of/cu0odde Reddit thread has some good info/updates. Ridiculous explosion, could be a looooot of people dead. https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/...sion_reported_in_chinese_port_city_of/cu0ndio
Holy shit. There must have been massive casualties within 2-4 km range from the ground zero due to aerial shockwave exploding people's windows in as people gathered near windows to see what's happening, only to receive a hail of shattered glass at them when the big one's blast hit them. That's just fucking horrible. There must be thousands of injured people. :edit: I think I overestimated the blastwave radius and strength, but still.
Officially 700 injured and 50 dead so far. I do bet that most injured were those near windows in the apartment buildings.
jesus christ. only 2 years for most firefighters in china? well shit that means most don't know what the hell they are doing. Hell in the U.S. just the basic school is 6 months of training and you have to go to more than just the basic. as well as another 20 hours a year to keep your job. but also you have to do EMT training and such so it ends up being 15 months of training before you can even APPLY for a city firefighting position.
I'm guessing the actual number of deaths and injuries will be much, much higher than the Chinese official count.
