Giant explosion in Tianjin China

An industrial explosion detonates in the port city of Tianjin China, when a warehouse full of material went up.

CBC article

Casualties are unknown but expected to be very heavy.

My heart goes out to those caught in or near the blast.

Video taken from a distance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIO5_p-Ev5k

Some of the footage was unbelievable. The second explosion bigger than the first. I know the city has a lot of chemical manufacturers so it could be any number given the location.

Looks almost like a bomb, so when do the conspiracy theorist start?

I love the comments section of western media outlets.

"is it a fireworks factory?" like China is like they get all their info about China from old western movies about chinamen building the railroads

They make fireworks, have a big wall and eat pets. That's all China has.

Originally posted by Robtard
Looks almost like a bomb, so when do the conspiracy theorist start?

Probably already.

It's almost certainly a totally plausibly mundane thing, though.

By the sounds of it, it started out as a gas station fire that then spread. And unfortunately, the firefighters who were fighting the earlier part almost certainly died in the explosion.

Originally posted by Robtard
Looks almost like a bomb, so when do the conspiracy theorist start?

Ask Jaden, he seems to have more links to conspiracy theorists than any of us.

Jaden's not really known as a conspiracy nut around these parts. So what happened?

A better, longer video

The silver lining is this is right in the middle of the port area, and not an area of high population density.

Carpark near the blast:

Probably the closest historical counterpart is the Halifax Explosion

Originally posted by Robtard
Jaden's not really known as a conspiracy nut around these parts. So what happened?

I don't know, the links he provided the other day were entertaining to say the least.

Originally posted by Q99
A better, longer video

The silver lining is this is right in the middle of the port area, and not an area of high population density.

Carpark near the blast:

Probably the closest historical counterpart is the Halifax Explosion

Carpark or dealership, all those cars look to be the same model.

Originally posted by Robtard
Carpark or dealership, all those cars look to be the same model.

There is a joke there but I aint gonna say it.

Originally posted by Robtard
Carpark or dealership, all those cars look to be the same model.

It'd make sense if it was a place where a company stored unloaded cars, used the nearby gas pump to fuel 'em up, then drive them to the actual dealerships.

Originally posted by psmith81992
Ask Jaden, he seems to have more links to conspiracy theorists than any of us.

Obsessed.

And it was you that posted the conspiracy links. Not me.

Seems to me not a liquid explosion as they tend to give an upwards rolling fireball. It doesn't appear to be a gas explosion as they tend to deflagrate slowly at first then accelerate outwards from the point of ignition. It's not a bleve.
Could be ammonium based.

Originally posted by Q99
An industrial explosion detonates in the port city of Tianjin China, when a warehouse full of material went up.

CBC article

Casualties are unknown but expected to be very heavy.

My heart goes out to those caught in or near the blast.

Video taken from a distance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIO5_p-Ev5k

My guess is whatever was stored here.
Dropped pin

http://goo.gl/maps/66qKh

Word is (and any info at this point may be off) that's a warehouse of the bonded Rui Hai Logistics company, which specializes in the handling of hazardous goods.

Map image- The car park may be in the upper left of the map.

More photos:

That's just devastation...

China Xinhua News' twitter reports

"Latest: 17 killed in #Tianjin warehouse blast, 32 critically injured, over 280 in hospital "

Update

Reports of 42 dead from one official.

Of the firefighters, 9 dead, 36 missing 🙁

Whew, a bit of good news:

About 2 km from the explosion site is the luxury Fifth Avenue apartment complex on a road strewn with broken glass and pieces of charred metal thrown from explosion. Like surrounding buildings, the Mediterranean style complex had all its windows blown out and some its surfaces were scorched.
“It’s lucky no one had moved in,” said a worker on the site, Liu Junwei, 29. “But for us it’s a total loss. Two years hard work down the drain.”

So at least one close-to-the-spot building was unoccupied.