Authorities confirm China warehouse explosion that killed scores was as a result of mismanagement

                                                                                       (C)AP

The blasts that killed 165 people at one of China’s busiest seaports last year (You can read the story here) were a result of a culture of mismanagement at a chemical warehouse and lax oversight by regulators, according to a government investigation whose results were released Friday. In the report, officials with the State Council, China’s cabinet, described the explosions in Tianjin six months ago as a man-made disaster that had caused $1.1 billion in damage, destroying more than 300 buildings and injuring nearly 800 people, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Officials vowed to punish 123 government workers in connection with the blasts, citing dereliction of duty. Another 49 people have already been placed under investigation, many of them employees of Rui Hai International Logistics, which operated the warehouse at the center of the blasts.
The explosions, one of the worst industrial disasters in Chinese history, prompted unusually impassioned calls for action from the Communist Party. Many people pointed to the disaster as a watershed moment, saying it had exposed the high cost for Chinese society of rapid industrialization. Ma Jun, a prominent environmentalist, said Friday that the investigation underscored the need to improve communication among government departments and to crack down on companies that violated safety rules.
“This was by no means, at all, a natural disaster,” Mr. Ma said. “It was caused by human error: one error after another, one failure after another.”
Greenpeace called for an overhaul of China’s chemical management system, saying in a statement on Friday, “Tianjin should be the catalyst for this.”
The report said the explosions had occurred when an improperly stored chemical became too dry and ignited, setting fire to nearby containers full of explosive substances. The chemical, nitrocellulose, is used in nail polish and lacquer. It was near containers of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical commonly used in fertilizers, The New York Times reports.