Huge explosion in China

[Egnever]

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/08/12/china-blast-idINKCN0QH2AO20150812

Huge explosions in China's Tianjin port area kill 17, hurt 400

Two massive explosions caused by flammable goods ripped through an industrial area in the northeast Chinese port city of Tianjin late on Wednesday, killing 17 people and injuring around 400, official Chinese media reported.

President Xi Jinping demanded that authorities quickly extinguish the fire caused by the blasts and "make full effort to rescue and treat the injured and ensure the safety of people and their property", China Central Television (CCTV) said on its official microblog.

CCTV said the blasts erupted in a shipment of explosives at around 11:30 p.m. local time (1530 GMT), triggering a blast wave that was felt kilometres (miles) away. The second blast came roughly 30 seconds after the first, state media said.

There is video at the link. I don't know if I have ever seen explosions so large.

[Marie Marie]

1. A Libertarian's Utopia...

I'm sure that there were very few if any safety regulations in place here.

[Egnever]

5. Clearly not

[Orrex]

8. This kind of thing could never happen in the US

Not even in a west Texas fertilizer plant, for instance.

[Egnever]

13. That fertilizer plant looks like a firecracker

Compared to this.

[Orrex]

14. Sad but tragically true

What a horror.

[malaise]

2. It was huge

http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/aug/13/tianjin-explosion-in-pictures

[Egnever]

3. Just massive

As I said above I think it is the biggest explosion I have ever seen. Aside from nuclear bombs of course.

[Aerows]

4. Horrifying

Hopefully since it was late at night there won't be as many casualties as it would have been during the day.

Just awful!

[Electric Monk]

6. The second, larger, explosion was essentially a massive fuel air (Thermobaric) bomb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon

[Egnever]

7. Amazing

The injuries and fatalities are horrible of course. I have never seen anything like it before there are huge buildings oin front of that explosion in the videos and it is larger than several of them together

[malaise]

9. Number of dead rising by the minute

now close to 50

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. Gif of the explosion plus cars destroyed more photos

Chinese site with more pictures and even a sound recording of the explosion.

http://www.news3lv.com/content/news/story/Xinhua-News-Agency-Death-toll-in-warehouse-blasts/sHeTczxYzUGeVBrYcTdBTg.cspx

[Catherine Vincent]

11. Wow

How devastating.

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. I hope the Gif picture was a security camera and not

a reporter because neither would survive ...........