An explosion in Tianjin, China [video] | Hacker News Reader

An explosion in Tianjin, China [video]

video.weibo.com

210 pointsdjyde79 comments

Watching the videos on the CCTV America link reminded me of some basic (but apparently necessary) safety advice. If you're ever in a situation like this, don't stand by a window filming it! You only have seconds until the blast breaks yours windows (depending on your distance from the epicenter and the explosion strength). From what I understand, the biggest immediate danger is lacerations from flying glass.

Get away from the windows and duck behind something solid.

The shockwave took about seven seconds to arrive, so they were about 1.5 miles away from the blast. It's not intuitive that the explosion can harm you at a distance like that -- as evidenced in more than one amateur video that came out of Iraq of EOD work.

I agree, which is why it's especially necessary advice. Your gut instinct upon seeing that blindingly bright flash should be to duck and cover, whether you're outdoors or indoors.

I wish this didn't have to be so important, since it feels like a Cold War relic, but that's just how things seem to be these days.

During the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor kaboom, one 4th grade teacher remembered her Russian "Duck and Cover" lessons and her 44 charges avoided injury: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/world/europe/russians-seek...

By no means a "Cold War relic".

"Duck and cover" is a popular target for ridicule, which is weird because it's always been excellent advice, even for global thermonuclear war. The fact that it's good for more conventional explosions lends further emphasis to that fact.

It seems we (they) still have the right gut instinct, but the timespan before the blast hit their building is just long enough so curiosity wins back.

with volcano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUREX8aFbMs

and meteor: https://youtu.be/VPFSyokDrec?t=251

Amazing how you can actually see the volcano explosion's blast radius push the clouds away.

FYI, the clouds aren't pushed away, they are created by the difference in pressure the shockwave (temporarily) creates. Waves in general do not move matter (except for the temporary oscillation).

Just to expand on this (pun intended), a sound wave is just a change in the local pressure of the fluid it's going through. The rapid and sudden pressure drop across the leading edge of the shock wave causes vapour in the air to condense and form clouds. This happens because lower pressure air has a lower temperature (in this case, because it cannot reach equilibrium fast enough) and lower temperature air holds less humidity. That humidity is the vapour that condenses.

You'll see this same effect on some jet fighters going transonic, contrails from wingtip vorticies on aircraft and other various natural phenomina.

Indeed. This occurs with rockets, too. One of my favorite pictures is one of a Saturn V going supersonic. See here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapor_cone#Gallery

As that gallery shows, the same effect is in play with nuclear explosions (and any significantly large explosion, really)

I am sure you are right about the apparent cloud movement in this case, but shockwaves can result from sudden displacement. I read somewhere that Fermi made a good estimate of the Trinity bomb yield by dribbling a stream of shredded paper from his hand. After the shockwave passed him, he paced out the displacement of those that were in the air at the time.

http://www.dannen.com/decision/fermi.html

It's a longitudinal "wave" impulse, so matter is not moved much, but energy is transferred outward by compression and decompression.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitudinal_wave

You called it. Video in tweet. https://twitter.com/XHNews/status/631562306854322176

I know it can be pointless to compare circumstances. You can always find someone worse in your situation.

I just read the (currently highest ranked) article about the failed Woolfe game, and reflected on how bad it must suck to put your heart, soul, and life into something only for it to fail. This sucks.

But, then I came across this post, and it again makes me reevaluate what truly does, suck. Failing sucks, it really does, and it might feel like death, but ultimately, it's not, and real, physical tragedies always remind us that there are truly reasons to keep living each day with passion, even with the eyes of failure glaring at us.

I hope everyone is ok.

I really appreciated this comment. It puts (personal/startup) tragedies in perspective.

I have no information beyond what's in the links here, and general safety-consciousness. From the cctv-america.com link:

> People standing outside of their buildings. Some have reported chemical gas leaks.

To anyone who lives in the area, I would suggest putting as many miles between yourself and the site of the explosion as you can, and also trying to stay upwind. Breathe through a particulate filter if you have one, and until there's more information, assume that any unidentified chemical smell is very bad for you. If you aren't actively moving and aren't an emergency responder, you definitely shouldn't be standing outside; stay indoors with windows shut, preferably in an upper floor. If you can, avoid the local tap water for a few days.

http://us.sinaimg.cn/000wGOwWjx06UAlFMAzd01040100tS4x0k01.mp...

ISO Media, MP4 Base Media v1 [IS0 14496-12:2003]

I came here to mention the URL too.

I have a downloaded copy as well if anyone needs it.

The file sha256 is b74a269131bd54a4b1ada41e28e3e14ace80e770693fa3c328b26073ea9a6e06. (I would never have thought to mention the video type, kudos.)

Close footage with replay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbPTKlHrX3w

Different angle with sound: http://video.weibo.com/show?fid=1034:dc65aafd8a97629626a8b7c...

This is redirecting me to weibo.com/login; looks like it was pulled down by the video author or the site itself.

Alternate source? A downloaded/cached copy, perhaps?

Seeing as the footage made its way onto youtube I'm going to assume the videographer is ok. Fingers crossed.

What I've heard, no. That video was (probably) from a live stream.

Which is also probably why the video stops before the debris reaches the operator. The footage being buffered was lost when the shock wave hit. That was a massive explosion and tonight we'll see the true extent of the damage.

...live streaming...

christ, don't want to the what happened to the guy filming it. That thing can make you pop like a balloon.

You can see what looks like a wall fragmenting and heading toward the camera, too. Yowch.

Does anyone know if this person had a chance of surviving?

zero

I was hoping they were behind some kind of protective barrier, though later heard they were livestreaming. The destruction is incredible.

More info: http://www.cctv-america.com/2015/08/12/explosion-reported-in...

This is why you stay away from doors and windows during a possible explosion:

https://twitter.com/OrRavid/status/631538952747380736

How do you know when an explosion is possible?

I don't know that it really applies to this video, but there are other videos out there of people recording video while looking at the window at the explosion, where they're far enough away to have a few seconds' warning before the shock wave hits.

After watching upwards of 3-4 videos on reddit today, I can confidently say that a large fire indicates an explosion is possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROrpKx3aIjA (explosion at 30s)

Light travels faster than sound.

In this instance, a massive and towering inferno in a port/construction zone/etc would be a reasonable marker that an explosion is possible and likely imminent.

Looks to me like he may have seen the explosion and then instead of dropping to the ground, reached into a satchel to retrieve a camera. I'm very very sorry for this person and his friends and family.

I don't think staying away from there door in that case would've made much difference. The shockwave flattened everything.

  Chinese city of Tianjin reported an explosion at 
  the dock at the Tianjin Binhai New Development 
  Zone around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday local time.

Man, what the hell was on that boat? Seems like maybe it a B.L.E.V.E. (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion).

My dad was the first mate on deep-sea freighters operating between Oakland and SE Asia. Once they transported munitions from the Concord Naval Weapons Station, located at the mouth of the Sacremento River, to a US ally in Asia. Their route through San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Strait all the way out to blue waters was cleared of all ships an hour prior to their departure. Transporting munitions is a very dangerous activity.

Did they clear the Golden Gate Bridge?

Current official cause is an explosives shipment: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1849118/blast...

Pure uninformed speculation on my part, but an LNG terminal was opened in November 2013. http://www.platts.com/latest-news/natural-gas/singapore/chin...

'The Tianjin floating, storage and regasification unit is China's first such facility.'

Reminds me of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

I live near part of what was the epicentre of the Halifax Explosion.

Best estimates are that it was the equivalent of a 2.9 kiloton nuclear explosion, it's rivalled by the Texas City Disaster (1947) [1], but about four times as many people (~2000) died in Halifax.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

Suggestion for title in case English is not the submitter's first language: "A terrible explosion just happened in Tainjin, China."

EDIT: Oh gee, I am so sorry I non-forcefully suggested a grammar fix in the title so that people would not harp on it. The proper response for my constructive criticism is more downvoting.

Yeah, I also think correctly conjugating the verb is what really matters. :-|

Here's a few details: http://www.cctv-america.com/2015/08/12/explosion-reported-in...

A photo of an apartment close to the explosion:

https://twitter.com/thelastnext/status/631514796450430976

And the click-bait media vultures are already hacking into it, despicable. http://i.imgur.com/MROUpJ6.jpg

He has other pics of the explosion, damage, injured people (not too gory), etc:

https://twitter.com/thelastnext

Does this in any way compare to the halifax explosion? Maybe a new record for accidental explosions?

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

The cctv-america link talks about a blast equivalent to 21 tons of TNT at this event, and your link has 2.9 kilotons in Halifax. So Halifax was ~150x this one.

I certainly hope not. There were 2000 fatalities in Halifax.

The Halifax Explosion was during working hours and near one of the most populated parts of Halifax which contributed to the large number of deaths.

The Mont Blanc carried 3121 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of trinitrotoluene, 35 tons of benzol and 10 tons of gun cotton.

12 ophthalmologists treated 592 people with eye injuries and performed 249 enucleations.

British Journal of Ophthalmology had a journal article about the medical treatments that were needed at the Halifax Explosion:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1955605/

I wonder if the different types of glass we use today would reduce that number.

My new word for the day is "enucleation". For the love dogs do not look that one up on youtube.

It is a bad idea to stay near glass windows during an explosion. Don't do it kids.

This reminds me very much of watching FOB Falcon burn for six hours one night in Iraq. Lucky mortar strike hit the ammo dump. It was like this video all night.

Well apparently it was captured by an IR weather sat...

https://twitter.com/RussellDengel/status/631523783874998272/...

http://realearth.ssec.wisc.edu/?products=HIMAWARI-B07.72&cen...

via reddit: It was picked up on the Japanese Himawari 8 weather satellite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfgS3C7PblA

More pic/videos from live search from weibo.com : http://weibo.com/p/1008087bef7c8c2cd3e28667d7cbf6ed9a7c4b

http://s.weibo.com/weibo/%20%E5%A4%A9%E6%B4%A5%E5%A1%98%E6%B...

People injured and hospitals around are full of patients...

The first link currently redirects to a login page, FYI. The second one is okay.

Someone else said there's a LPG terminal in the area. Just a guess but it looks like:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_liquid_expanding_vapor... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI0qU4EZbS8

Looks like there was an initial fire followed by a much larger explosion. My guess is that there was an accident at a major power/refinery plant.

Seems like a powerful blast . Is thee any oil refinery or power plant nearby ?

The explosion video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G89GrcvbMEo

Hope everything will be ok.

YouTube video: https://youtu.be/zEberOX33_Y

Jesus, that is massive. I hope people are safe.

Probably a chemical warehouse?

Looks very similar to a refinery explosion

a chinese news says it was a gas station...

I saw video of one go up in Brazil, gas stations don't go kaboom to that extent at all. That is early reporting that is full of errors.

Deleted comment

1. No. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_power_stations_i...

2. Nuclear power plants don't go up like this.

Sorry I wasn't implying that it was the source of the explosion, but I thought there was a power plant in the vicinity of Tianjin Port.

Begun, the Currency War has.

That's some Michael Bay shit right there. Transformers 8 shooting nearby?

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