Four new fires have broken out at
the site where two huge blasts last week killed 116 people,
Chinese state media reported Friday
soon after officials said safety hazards were found at almost 70 percent of
firms handling dangerous chemicals in Beijing.
The explosions in a warehouse
storing dangerous chemicals devastated an industrial park in the northeastern
port city of Tianjin late on Aug. 12. More than 700 people were injured and
thousands were evacuated because of the risk posed by chemicals stored at the
site.
The official Xinhua news agency said
Friday rescue crews were rushing to the site after four new fires broke out. It
said one of the "combustion points" was in a logistics site for
automobiles near last week's blasts.
The other three were within the
central blast area, it said without giving any explanation of the cause of the
fires.
The news agency also said the death
toll rose to 116 on Friday from a previously reported 114, and 60 people were
still missing.
State authorities have confirmed that
more than 700 tonnes of the deadly chemical sodium cyanide were stored at the
Tianjin warehouse that blew up.
Nationwide inspections of facilities
handling dangerous chemicals and explosives were ordered by China's State
Council after the blasts last week.
More than 100 chemical firms across
seven provinces have been told to suspend operations or shut down due to safety
violations in the recent days, announcements by regional governments show.
That includes 19 companies in Hubei
province, 26 firms in Anqing city in the southeastern province of Anhui, two in
the capital, Beijing, and 39 in Zhejiang province.
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› China authorities place rabbits, chickens near
Tianjin blast site
In Beijing alone, an inspection of
124 sites that stored dangerous chemicals found hazards at 85 firms, Xinhua
said late on Thursday, citing Beijing's work safety bureau.
THOUSANDS OF DEAD FISH
The State Council said in a
statement on Thursday that advanced equipment and the best expertise must be
used to prevent major environmental incidents in the future.
Pictures taken by Reuters on
Thursday showed workers scooping thousands of dead fish out of the Haihe river
near Tianjin, a day after authorities had declared the city's drinking water
was safe.
Tianjin officials said the dead fish
were caused by regular seasonal low oxygen levels in the water and were not
related to the blasts.
Authorities however have also warned
that cyanide levels in waters around Tianjin port, the world's 10th-busiest and
the gateway to China's industrial north, had risen to as much as 277 times
acceptable levels.
The blasts at Tianjin also prompted
a nationwide review of China's industrial safety record, which has struggled to
keep pace with the breakneck speed of China's economic growth.
China has struggled in recent years
with incidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires, and President Xi
Jinping has vowed that authorities should learn the lessons paid for with
blood.
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Coverage
Executives of Tianjin Dongjiang Port
Ruihai International Logistics, the firm whose warehouse exploded, have said
they used connections to obtain safety approvals. The site was found to be too
close to nearby homes. {ID:nL3N10U37W]
Inspectors carrying out the safety reviews
in Beijing found that security personnel at a branch of Sinopec Corp (0386.HK), Asia's largest refiner, were unfamiliar
with how to handle an oil tank fire, Xinhua said.
"Companies that fail our
inspections will be ordered to suspend operations, and their warehouses will be
put under 24-hour surveillance," Xinhua quoted Qian Shan, vice-head of the
Beijing work safety bureau, as saying.
Despite the infractions found at the
Sinopec branch, Xinhua did not say that the facility would be shut.
Beijing has also suspended
operations at firms that make or deal in highly toxic chemicals and explosives
from Aug. 17 to Sept. 6 in preparation for a military parade and athletics
event, Xinhua said.
On Wednesday, three oil and gas
firms close to residences were told by authorities in the cities of Hangzhou
and Shenzhen to halt operations.
(Additional Reporting by Michael
Martina in BEIJING and Sue-Lin Wong and SHANGHAI Newsroom; Editing by Paul Tait and Ryan Woo)
Firefighters in protection suits
carry a a man playing the role of a victim on a stretcher during an anti-chemical
drill next to storage tanks of liquefied petroleum gas, at a factory in Haikou,
Hainan province, China, August 21, 2015.
Reuters/Stringer
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