HUGE explosions rock Chinese city of Tianjin

[wnied]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/12/asia/china-port-explosion/

One could wonder, if these might be weapons packed to be shipped to sanctioned countries...



Just a thought.

 

[Imp]

Already a thread in P&N, but I rarely head there for good reason...

Looks pretty messy and insane. Some videos going around of people probably being killed.

 

[Imp]

Found a decent collection of pictures of stuff I hadn't seen before.

http://www.businessinsider.com/china-tianjin-explosion-2015-8

 

[Markbnj]

Hard to get a sense of the scale, but it made me think of Halifax.

 

[Printer Bandit]

video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1aHADL2a24



aftermath:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZa48XG7NNM

 

[Ichinisan]

Incredible.

 

[mmntech]

BBC did say the warehouse was storing a shipment of explosives, and that's what caused the initial blast. Not necessarily ordinance. The stuff they use for mining packs quite a wallop. And if it's stored with other dangerous chemicals, that's a recipe for disaster. China isn't exactly known for its stellar safety record, and I'm sure the facility was probably storing things it shouldn't have been.

The initial blast was said to be equivalent to 3 tonnes of TNT, while the second one was 21 tonnes. That's a blast yield roughly equivalent to detonating two MOABs at once.

 

[TechBoyJK]

BBC did say the warehouse was storing a shipment of explosives, and that's what caused the initial blast. Not necessarily ordinance. The stuff they use for mining packs quite a wallop. And if it's stored with other dangerous chemicals, that's a recipe for disaster. China isn't exactly known for its stellar safety record, and I'm sure the facility was probably storing things it shouldn't have been.

The initial blast was said to be equivalent to 3 tonnes of TNT, while the second one was 21 tonnes. That's a blast yield roughly equivalent to detonating two MOABs at once.

And I think it looked especially large due to all the gasses, etc. A traditional weapon yeilding 21 tonnes may not have burned so large but it would have had the same impact.

 

[TechBoyJK]

God damn if this explosion was intentional.

 

[n7]

video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1aHADL2a24



aftermath:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZa48XG7NNM

OMG

 

[Exterous]

I am shocked the death toll is so small after watching some of those. Probably a good thing it happened at night

 

[z1ggy]

I am shocked the death toll is so small after watching some of those. Probably a good thing it happened at night

Yeah I was surprised, too. At night is probably why it is low. That, or a bunch of people very close were literally blown into teeny little human chunks and their remains are impossible to find/identify.

 

[vi edit]

I am shocked the death toll is so small after watching some of those. Probably a good thing it happened at night

1. It's China so I believe nothing that comes from there.
2. It's still early and is going to take a long time to sift through the debris.

I fully expect it to grow.

 

[Sonikku]

Paging John Conner.

It has begun.

 

[Ichinisan]

I am shocked the death toll is so small after watching some of those. Probably a good thing it happened at night

Yeah I was surprised, too. At night is probably why it is low. That, or a bunch of people very close were literally blown into teeny little human chunks and their remains are impossible to find/identify.

Do you really think they've even tried to go in and count bodies yet?

That's just one department reporting how many they already KNOW are dead among the chaos. The death toll is obviously much higher by at least an order of magnitude.

 

[Anubis]

I expect it to grow however

it happened at nearly midnight and they don't run a lot of overnight stuff in that area so there were not a ton of people in the area, the closer buildings that took most of the damage were partially occupied office buildings

 

[alien42]

One could wonder, if these might be weapons packed to be shipped to sanctioned countries...

one could, but they would be assuming, jumping to conclusions and showing their ignorance.

 

[wnied]

Ignorance is more suspicion. Either way, if it was we'll never know the truth.

The videos of the explosion are incredible.

 

[Exterous]

Do you really think they've even tried to go in and count bodies yet?

That's just one department reporting how many they already KNOW are dead among the chaos. The death toll is obviously much higher by at least an order of magnitude.

Yeah because I totally said that it was the final toll and couldn't grow.

 

[feralkid]

God damn if this explosion was intentional.

Set off by fat people.

 

[Ichinisan]

Yeah because I totally said that it was the final toll and couldn't grow.

What was the point of your comment then?

I see this with most disasters during the earliest reports. People comment:
"Wow! The death toll is surprisingly low. I expected much higher."

I don't expect a number even close to accurate for at least a couple days. Possibly much, much longer.

 

[Drako]

Area of the explosion on google maps.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tianjin,+China/@39.0387333,117.7362367,2130a,20y,90h/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x35edfc621e2c0e87:0x847194b730884031

 

[soccerballtux]

any title with explosions and rock is clickbait

 

[Denly]

There are report say a crew of 200 firefighters at the site before the bang only 4 left after.

 

[Imp]

Explosion may not even be the worst part. Heard a lot of chemicals were released, bad toxic shit. CNN reporter in the city said he could smell it 2 kilometers from the blast site. Something about telling people to wear surgical masks -- because particulate masks are great against chemicals...