Premier Li Keqiang talks to a wounded man who is being temporarily housed at the No. 2 Elementary School of the Binhai New District Development Zone in Tianjin, on August 16 (CNPHOTO)
Investigations underway
So why was a warehouse that stored a variety of hazardous materials located so close to a residential community?
While making an inspection in Tianjin, Premier Li Keqiang vowed that a thorough investigation of the accident was already underway and promised that there would be open and transparent disclosure of information to the public.
China's Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun arrived at the blast site in Tianjin at 5 a.m. on August 13 to direct rescue operations and visit the wounded in hospitals, making it his first priority to ensure the safety of people's lives and security of property.
Speaking at a meeting on the rescue efforts, Guo also urged local authorities to continue to search for survivors, while correctly disposing of the dangerous chemicals around the blast site and preventing further accidents.
On August 16, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) announced that it had begun investigating whether there was any dereliction of duty involved in the warehouse explosions in Tianjin.
Two days later on August 18, China's cabinet, the State Council, announced that an investigation team headed by Executive Vice Minister of Public Security Yang Huanning had been established to probe the causes of the deadly explosions and said it would carry out a thorough investigation into the matter.
Tianjin Ruihai International Logistics Co. Ltd., the owner of the warehouse, was founded in 2011. As the company's documents show, it was granted temporary approval to handle hazardous chemicals from April to October of 2014. However, after the approval period expired, the company continued to handle these materials.
In June 2015, Ruihai obtained a port operation license from the authorities, which again allowed them to deal with dangerous chemicals. At the time of the blasts they were storing highly toxic sodium cyanide and potentially explosive potassium nitrate and ammonium nitrate.
As part of the certification process for the company's license, the company submitted a poll of 128 people living near the warehouse, which concluded that "most of the respondents support the project, with no objections."
But conversely, residents in the neighborhood claim they didn't even know that the warehouse was in their backyard.
Vanke, the real estate developer for Haigangcheng that was damaged in the explosion, said that when it obtained the land in 2010, to the best of its knowledge, the warehouse stored ordinary goods and the real estate company had never been informed about the storage of any dangerous chemicals.
The freight volume handled by Ruihai stands at 1 million tons per year, with annual revenue exceeding 30 million yuan ($4.76 million).
On August 19, Tianjin Mayor Huang Xingguo, also Party chief of the city, claimed responsibility for the blasts and proposed building a memorial park at the blast site for the firefighters.
"As the chief of Tianjin Party committee and municipal government, I have an unshirkable responsibility," Huang told a press conference.
As of August 20, the cause of the explosion is still under investigation.
