holy shit the CHINA EXPLOSION

• Splatulated wrote on 2015-08-15 09:00
  destroyed cars over 2 miles away x.x
  
  http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/13/asia/china-tianjin-explosions
• Osayidan wrote on 2015-08-15 10:50
  [video=youtube;oGcP84ouyAo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGcP84ouyAo[/video]
  
  I don't know how they just stay there and film it I would be worried about my family instead of grabbing a video for youtube...
• Aubog007 wrote on 2015-08-15 12:03

  Quote from Osayidan;1284149:

  [video=youtube;oGcP84ouyAo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGcP84ouyAo]
  
  I don't know how they just stay there and film it I would be worried about my family instead of grabbing a video for youtube...

  
  
  Some of the livestreamers died.
• Odin wrote on 2015-08-15 14:30
  Hundreds if not thousands injured, easily a hundred dead- the numbers are all over the place and the Chinese government isn't releasing any facts. The blast was said to be equivalent to 21 tons of TNT, and caused serious structural damage over a several mile radius turning windows into flying knives and crushing weaker structures outright.
  
  What I did find out last night though was that there was a very fun mixture of chemicals in a hazmat warehouse that caused this.
  
  They say the fire actually originated in one of the shipping containers, but quickly spread to the hazmat warehouse and car lots.
  
  The hazmat warehouse apparently contained shipments of Calcium Carbide, Ammonium and Potassium Nitrates, and Sodium Cyanide.
  
  Well, as it happens, Calcium Carbide reacts with water to produce the highly flammable Acetylene gas, and the Nitrate shipments are strong oxidizers well known for making explosives as well as the more peaceful usage as fertilizer. And Sodium Cyanide is toxic as can be.
  
  So what happened is the firefighters tried to put water on the fire, but when they did the Calcium Carbide got wet and began to emit Acetylene gas, in a burning building, full of hot nitrates. The resulting explosion was more or less inevitable under that situation.
  
  But here's where it gets even more ugly. All that Sodium Cyanide. While toxic enough by itself, under the conditions present, some of it would have reacted to even more deadly Hydrogen Cyanide. And now you have an explosion in the building, with this toxic material inside. Should be obvious how bad this part is, as you suddenly have toxic materials launched into the air and raining down on the surroundings.
  
  BBC article about the explosive chemistry involved with pictures of the aftermath: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33923478
  
  Somebody screwed up, beyond bigtime. At least China's government is responding to it in the same manner as any civilized country, deploying EMS and military personnel for rescue and cleanup operations. But they're also doing something they shouldn't be, and that is censoring people who try to talk about this online. I haven't seen any reliable sources for that yet, but there's rumors that the Chinese government is deleting posts about the topic and banning repeat offenders.
• Osayidan wrote on 2015-08-15 14:46
  The only reliable on-the-scene information I've seen is from people who were near enough to see it happen. And they're all probably fucked now with that cyanide in the air.
• Space Pirate Nithiel wrote on 2015-08-15 15:27
  Thats uh...Not good. o_o
• Qnjo wrote on 2015-08-15 16:25

  Quote from Aubog007;1284153:

  Some of the livestreamers died.

  
  Ah, natural selection at its finest.
• Qnjo wrote on 2015-08-15 19:33

  Quote from Aubog007;1284153:

  Some of the livestreamers died.

  
  Looks like my post has been deleted, so allow me to rephrase it in a less radical manner. Following that mass-media-induced urge to share everything you come across when there's huge explosion right in front of you makes a textbook example of lack of self-preservation instinct. So really now, they had it coming.
• Darkboy132 wrote on 2015-08-15 20:40
  I'm terrified. My mom, as a flight attendant, makes commercial flights to Beijing almost once a week and stays there for 5-6 days. Tainjin isn't very far from Beijing...
• M wrote on 2015-08-15 22:15
  [Image: http://puu.sh/jCUu7/cf7cca997d.jpg]

  
  
  Serious though, that's one killer explosion.
• Yai wrote on 2015-08-15 22:47
  This is horrifying :C
  
  Saw this on the news when it first happened. My thoughts go to the families and friends of all the workers =(
  
  I really hope this helps enforce more strict safety rules for handling dangerous chemicals in the future.
• TLCBonaparte wrote on 2015-08-15 23:36

  Quote from Qnjo;1284166:

  Looks like my post has been deleted, so allow me to rephrase it in a less radical manner. Following that mass-media-induced urge to share everything you come across when there's huge explosion right in front of you makes a textbook example of lack of self-preservation instinct. So really now, they had it coming.

  
  
  How exactly do you preserve yourself from sudden explosion?
• Osayidan wrote on 2015-08-16 00:00

  Quote from TLCBonaparte;1284180:

  How exactly do you preserve yourself from sudden explosion?

  
  
  The same can be said about "how do you pick up your phone and start recording a sudden explosion", wouldn't any sane person try to find cover if they weren't immediately killed?
• Odin wrote on 2015-08-16 00:58
  Even taking cover would not necessarially have been enough though. The blast shattered windows, turning glass into deadly flying knives, and in some cases deformed or demolished entire structures where the architecture was not up to the task of blocking the impact.
  
  And consider too. How many of these people KNEW what was on fire. I'm willing to bet next to none, they just saw a really big fire and went oh wow something big happening. Little did they know that this kind of danger was lurking in their hometown, after all China does a good job of simply not telling people things and making sure nobody who could start a fuss ever finds out about a hidden danger.
  
  So given that Chinese censorship would have prevented them from realizing what kind of danger they were in, they just saw a really big fire in the distance with lots of firefighters going to deal with it, all totally routine other than how big of a fire it was- and totally the talk of the town if it had just been a fire.
  
  Suddenly, explosions. Okay, even a normal building fire will make some explosions as aerosol containers and batteries pop. Warehouse fires usually have forklift fuel bottles bursting, explosive yes but not huge enough to be dangerous other than to the firefighters on the scene.
  
  Suddenly a gigantic mushroom cloud of fire and chemicals bursts forth, you wouldn't have even had time to react with any more than screaming before the shockwave knocks you over and flattens your house.
  
  Lack of sensibility? I think not. These people were largely unaware of what kind of danger they were looking at, they just saw something cool and stopped to film it from what they thought was a safe distance. Had it gone down like any normal building fire, it would have been the talk of the town for a few days and that's that.
• Qnjo wrote on 2015-08-16 00:58

  Quote from TLCBonaparte;1284180:

  How exactly do you preserve yourself from sudden explosion?

  
  Not by trying to film it, that's for sure.