Chinese Investigators Identify Cause Of Tianjin Explosion

A new report by China’s top governing body identifies the cause of an explosion at a hazardous goods warehouse in Tianjin’s harbor in August of 2015. The catastrophe killed 165 people.

Assigning responsibility far and wide, investigators blamed the disaster on the negligence or corruption of 123 people in addition to the 49 previously arrested.

The immediate cause of the accident was the spontaneous ignition of overly dry nitrocellulose stored in a container that overheated, according to the report, issued on Feb. 5. Wetting agents inside the container had evaporated in the summer heat, investigators found. Flames from that initial fire reached nearby ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which exploded.

Investigators determined that the accident had a fairly limited impact on the local environment. Marine life in Bohai Bay, outside Tianjin, was not affected, the investigation found. And although hundreds of tons of sodium cyanide were stored at the warehouse, no one died from poisoning, the report added. Investigators noted that local authorities are still monitoring environmental quality in the area.

The investigative team, assembled under the authority of the State Council—China’s top decision-making body—consisted of some 600 officials from agencies such as the Ministry of Environment, the State Administration of Work Safety, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, China’s top investigative body. They reviewed thousands of documents and had access to 100,000 hours of surveillance footage, reported Xinhua, a state news agency.

Investigators found that Tianjin Ruihai International Logistics, the operator of the warehouse, illegally stored hazardous materials and that its “safety management procedures were inept.” It also assigned varying degrees of blame to 74 government officials from agencies at the municipal, provincial, and national levels. Some officials, investigators found, were guilty of “taking bribes and abusing power.”

To prevent a similar catastrophe, investigators issued a list of recommendations, including the creation of a national system for monitoring hazardous chemicals storage. They also recommended that firefighters be better equipped. First responders accounted for 110 of the dead.

Responding to the report, the environmental group Greenpeace said it did not go far enough, noting that hundreds of serious industrial accidents happen in China every year. “Noncompliance and negligence on the part of companies and local administrations are among the root causes of these alarmingly frequent chemical accidents,” the group said. It called on the government to create a comprehensive system to oversee the manufacture, use, transportation, storage, and treatment of hazardous chemicals.