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Tianjin warehouse explosion 2015
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SCMP reporter Keira Lu Huang visits the Tianjin blast site. Photo: KY Cheng

Inside Tianjin's Ground Zero: The catastrophic scene at the heart of deadly blast zone

It was hard to get a true sense of the deadly blasts in Tianjin until I set foot in ground zero.

Early Monday afternoon, the local government sent six Toyota Coaster buses to drive journalists to the heavily guarded blast zone for the first time. It was the opportunity we'd been waiting for, although many of us had sneaked into the area before.

"We always planned to bring you here. Today it's just the right time," a local official said.

Perhaps the sight of Premier Li Keqiang visiting the site without protective gear on Sunday had reassured people.

The burning debris at the explosion site. Photo: Xinhua
We got out at the four-lane Haibin Avenue next to the blast scene at around 3pm. Dead - that was my first reaction. It felt dead. The only sound I could hear was from excavators.

Containers, once neatly stacked, were scattered, burned and twisted, as if a giant angry boy had smashed his toy blocks. They were in the creek near the highway, on top of cars - themselves just gutted skeletons of vehicles - and other places where they didn't belong. That was as vivid an image as any showing the strength of the blasts.

Almost seven days after the explosions, black smoke still seeped from a pile of containers.

Read more: Fears of deadly cyanide gas reaction as rain forecast for Tianjin

But what caught my eye was the big hole in the middle of those containers. That was where the warehouse once was. The hole, more accurately, was a pond.

Rescuers clear away obstacles at the explosion site. Photo: Xinhua
I asked officials, police and military officers at the scene whether the water was left when firefighters first tried to put out the blaze. The question was met with either silence or "I don't know".

It has been widely reported that the water from firehoses triggered the blast.

In the past week, I have talked to dozens of families of missing firefighters, injured people and desperate homeowners. But it was only after I went to the blast scene, seeing the ruins of the fire department, the tangled window frames outside blocks of flats and damaged cars, that those stories started to sink in.

A drone operated by paramilitary police flies over the site. Photo: Reuters
The worst damage stretches along the avenue for more than 300 metres.

As the wind's direction changed, I smelled not only things burning but also a peculiar odour, like something from a chemistry lab.

The stinging in my eyes and throat that I felt on the first two days in Tianjin came back after this visit, even though I was wearing a mask. I thought those symptoms were due to my tiredness. Now I blame it on the air.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Visiting the dead heart of catastrophe
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