8·12 Blast

In the evening of August 12， 2015， dangerous goods warehouse of Ruihai International Company exploded， which is at Binhai District Tanggu development zone of Tianjin. This explosion is the second hazardous chemicals blast within one month following the similar accident in Rizhao of Shandong Province on July 16， 2015. The deafening explosion was accompanied with gray mushroom cloud. The sky above the explosion was dyed red and everywhere around the blast was full of flame.

It is reported that the first explosion happened at 23：34：06 of August 12， 2015 and the local magnitude ML is about 2.3， amount to the energy of 3 tons of TNT. The official microblog of China National Seismic Network reported that according to netizens’ feedback， the shake could be felt at Tanggu District， Binhai District of Tianjin， Hejian， Suning， Jinzhou and Gaocheng of Hebei Province.

Severe losses

This precipitate explosion have caused 173 people dead， including 24 firefighters from public security department， 75 firefighters from Tianjin Port， 11 policemen， and 55 other people. The number of inpatient reached up to 233 persons， among whom 3 persons were critically ill， 3 were severe. Hospital discharge added up to 565 persons. Residential households with damaged windows and doors caused by the explosion were as much as more than 17， 000. Besides， 779 business households were damaged.

Analysts made evaluations on the overall economic losses of this blast. The most outstanding one was made by German Financial Network. It says the economic losses are estimated to several billions even tens of billions of euros. In accordance with the exchange rate of euro to RMB （one euro equals to 7.3232 RMB）， the losses are as high as 73 billion RMB.

Since the explosion site is close to the storage place of imported cars， such companies as Volkswagen， Renault and Land Rover were greatly damaged. It is estimated that thousands of imported cars were burned due to the explosion and the value of the broken new cars amount up to 2 billion RMB. Rating agency Fitch reported on August 18th， 2015 that insurance losses caused by the shaking blast in Tianjin may roar up to $1.5 billion， making it the costliest disaster in recent years in China.

In addition， Tianjin Port， where Ruihai International Company located， has some impact to some extent. Tianjin Port， also known as New Tianjin Port， sits in the estuary of Haihe River and the intersection of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Province city agglomeration and Bohai Economic Circle. It is the largest comprehensive port in north China and an important port for foreign trade. Its cargo handling capacity in 2013 exceeded 500 million tons for the first time and container throughput exceeded 13 million TEUs， becoming the first 500 million ton port in north China. Zhang Yansheng， Secretary-General of China National Development and Reform Commission Academic Committee said in an interview by "China Economic Weekly"， as an international shipping center in north China， Tianjin Port was has not only significant direct losses but also indirect losses. The disaster may even impede the investment of global capital to Tianjin in certain degree.

Public anxiety remaining with 24h monitoring

Different from general accidents， hazardous chemicals explosion is probable to pollute the air， water and soil. For this reason， after the explosion Tianjin Municipal Environment Monitoring Center sent its first group of staff to the regions near the explosion midnight just after the explosion， and began to monitor the environment quality beyond the warning area.

Sampling and lab personnel， logistics and related equipment from Tianjin Municipal Environment Monitoring Center were all in the explosion site 2 hours after the first group staff. The personnel debugged equipment and set 10 air monitoring sites， 8 air flow screening sites， 40 water monitoring sites and 4 marine environment monitoring sites. Through continuously monitoring 24 hours each day， they acquired test data， consulted with experts， and then released the environment data to the public.

The team leader of Tianjin Municipal Environmental Protection Office Emergency Response Expert Team Bao Jingling said in an interview， the purpose of setting air monitoring sites was to test the impact of the explosion to the air and make timely response plans. "Once there are continuous excessive pollution or abnormal conditions， we will inform the public the first time to retreat and shift from the dangerous." Meantime， Ministry of Environmental Protection called together environmental protection research and monitoring experts， technicians， monitoring equipment， vehicles from different place of the whole country to the explosion site to help carry out emergency monitoring. They respectively provided supports to monitoring of air， water， soil， and marine. They discussed to optimize and adjust emergency monitoring plans， helped to release monitoring data and information. Through continuously releasing information from different aspects， they tried to comfort the public. But even so， the anxiety and mistrust in the public cannot to be eliminated.

Security： just slogan， no action

What exactly is Ruihai International Logistics Co.Ltd？ The company’s website says it was established in 2011， it is a designated loading station of dangerous goods by Tianjin Maritime Bureau and the licensed company for port operation of dangerous goods by Tianjin Traffic Committee. It repeatedly carried out hazardous chemicals accident drills. March 5th， 2014， this company held an emergency drill of responding to hypertoxic chemicals spill at the north warehouse of hypertoxic chemicals. Five months later in August， the Ministry of Public Security carried out a number of inspections to this company. Most of the goods in its warehouse are dangerous and toxic.

The company alleged its security policy on its website as "more scientific， more rigorous， more standardized， and responsible for life". It also made special emphasis on "security" by declaring "Money is good， but life is much better； time is important， but security is more important."， "Security is the priority and the foremost." While in fact， "security" is just the slogan， and no actions were made to ensure security.

Xinhua News Agency’s investigation discovered that the actual controller of Ruihai International Company Yu Xuewei had served as the deputy manager of Tianjin branch company of Sinochem Group. And the second largest shareholder Dong Shexuan’s father is the ex-Director of Tianjin Port Public Security Bereau. Yu and Dong took advantage of the kinship to let Ruihai easily pass fire appraisal and EIA approval.