What was location of incident?
The blast took place on 12th of August, 2015 at port of Tianjin that is biggest port of northern China and commonly known as port of Tanggu. It is largest manmade port in mainland china and also one of the biggest ports in the world.
What happened?
Much of what happened is still unclear to world but what all knows is a huge blast happened and approximately one hundred people lost their lives in it and several hundreds were injured. Authorities said that they are still investigating and cannot say final words about how it happened.
What are assumptions?
Assumptions are many but the most realistic and what seems to be true is that, blast was happened because of chemical present in a warehouse at port. First it was a explosion that might led to big and life taking blast.
Which chemicals were involved?
In that warehouse there were a great number of explosive chemicals that caused a fire explosion. These chemicals were including calcium carbide, sodium cyanide, potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate and sodium nitrate. All these chemicals are highly flammable.
Before the blast many fire fighters were already present at site and trying to control fire. Investigators suggested that spray of water on a very explosive chemical named as calcium carbide, which produces acetylene when combined with water. That acetylene approached to other chemicals and caused a big blast.
What was intensity of blast?
The blast was very intense that even the satellite objects orbiting the earth also captured it. It also produced a very poisonous gas hydrogen cyanide that became reason of many casualties itself.
Who made negligence?
Every person who was there with firefighters was responsible. Also those people who knew that which chemicals are stored inside warehouse were responsible to make it clear that water spray can be harmful for stored substances.
What steps to take for future?
This is a very alarming situation for every state and every chemical safety law and authorities that they should revise laws. OSHA should take productive steps for minimizing such incidents. Firefighters must be trained according to OSHA rules and regulations so they can better handle fire situations and fire accidents in any chemical involved areas. Firefighters must be well aware that which chemical is highly reactive and explosive towards water and how to overcome and fix that situation.
Leave A Comment