Two gigantic explosions rocked the port city of Tianjin, China on Wednesday night. The massive fireballs went up hundreds of feet in the air and dwarfed the high-rise apartment and office buildings around it. The blasts were felt over two miles away. The blasts registered up to 2.9 on the Richter scale. Some estimates put the force of the blasts equivalent to 25 tons of dynamite.
50 people have been confirmed dead and 17 of them are firefighters. Many people are still unaccounted for and hundreds have been injured. The cause of the blasts is not yet known or have not yet been announced by the government. There is a big concern that there are deadly fumes and smoke in the air. The combination of chemicals or other flammable materials at the shipping yard is not known. The city of Tianjin has a population of 13 million people.
Many building have been wiped out. Other building are damaged and unsafe. Also, hundreds or thousands of cars at the port were incinerated. Most of the vehicles in the shipping yard appear to be Volkswagen Touaregs and Beetles.
Lets hope the officials and emergency crews get the disaster under control quickly, and prevent this from happening again.
