By Will Ripley, Steven Jiang and Jethro Mullen,
CNN
| Video Source: CNN
Story highlights
"I thought we were finished," says a man who
escaped from a collapsed building
More than 500 people have been hospitalized,
dozens of them with critical injuries
Firefighters are among the dead and many
remain missing, state media report
Tianjin, China (CNN)— You can see the
devastation everywhere: in the hollowed-out
shells of barely-standing buildings, in the
anguished faces of relatives waiting for news of
loved ones, in the parade of scorched cars.
But what was it that set off the terrifying blasts
that ripped through warehouses containing
hazardous chemical materials, sending fireballs
shooting across the sky and shaking tall
buildings more than 2 miles away?
Hours later, amid the destruction in this
northern Chinese port city of more than 13
million, the exact cause of Wednesday night's
blast remained unclear.
A thick chemical odor hung in the air. Fires still
burned in the waterfront industrial district where
the explosions went off. And the grim toll kept
mounting.
At least 50 people are confirmed dead, including
12 firefighters, officials said Thursday. More
than 500 people are hospitalized, and 71 of
them were in critical condition, the state-run
Xinhua news outlet reported. Dozens of
firefighters are missing.
Local authorities suspended firefighting efforts
Thursday because of a lack of information about
the "dangerous goods" stored at the warehouse
at the heart of the blasts, Xinhua said.
The explosions originated at a warehouse site
owned by Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai
International Logistics Co. Ltd., a company that
stores and transports dangerous chemicals.
Company executives have been taken into
custody, state media said.
The blasts' destructive force tore into Tianjin,
smashing buildings and mangling shipping
containers.
The first explosion was huge, but the second
was even more powerful -- the equivalent of 21
metric tons of TNT or a magnitude 2.9
earthquake, according to the China Earthquake
Networks Center.
The power of the explosions destroyed the
house where Qian Jiping and his wife, both of
them migrant construction workers, were
staying.
"When I heard the first explosion, I thought we
were finished," he said.
Strangers pulled them from the rubble. They
fled barefoot, desperate to get away, barely
feeling the jagged shards of glass that littered
the ground.
Across the city, residents were jolted awake as
the blasts shattered windows and fish tanks.
"The shock wave just blew through our
apartment. It blew out the glass, it blew out the
doors, it knocked out the power," said Vafa
Anderson, a teacher at an international school
who lives less than two kilometers from the
explosions' epicenter.
Anderson told CNN he was awakened by the
first blast and was looking out the window when
the second went off, sending a "huge mushroom
cloud" into the sky.
"I thought it was an earthquake!" said Liu Yue, a
25-year-old woman who lives about four
kilometers away. "I was extremely scared. I was
afraid my family was in danger."
She told CNN the entire 16-floor building she
lives in was rocking.
The injured were taken to different hospitals in
the city, with many reported to be suffering
from cuts caused by broken glass.
People gathered outside one hospital not far
from an area of badly damaged buildings,
waiting for news of loved ones.
A severely burned man was wheeled past
waiting crowds.
Some people collapsed from the heartbreak of
losing someone close to them.
"Why did God take her? Why did God take my
daughter?" one man cried out.
What to know about the Tianjin crisis
Will Ripley and Steven Jiang reported from Tianjin.
Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong
Kong. Shen Lu, Dana Ford and Elizabeth Joseph
contributed to this report.
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#Blast aftermath: An abandoned convention
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A photo posted by Steven Jiang (@stevenc...
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Long gist

Death everywhere. May God have mercy.