chemical plant kot
that's huge

3.40pm: more than 700 soldiers mobilized with shovels ready to reenter the blast zone for rescue efforts.

This post has been edited by teehk_tee: Aug 13 2015, 04:02 PM

approx 1/6 of the cars at the Renault facility 300m from the blast site destroyed.

【300米外千辆汽车被毁仅剩框架】在距离爆炸现场南侧不到400米处，四五个约足球场大小的停车场上，停放的上千辆全新汽车，几乎全被焚毁，仅剩框架。

like some of the others mentioned, they're part of the wujing 武警(Armed Police), which is governed partially by the Central Military Command.
they're primarily a reactionary force.. think of it as more of a military deployment than civil defence.

http://china.org.cn/china/2015-08/13/content_36292761.htm

Expert: Cyanide may have been present in Tianjin blast

The possibility of there being cyanide at the accident site in Tianjin cannot be ruled out, the China Youth Daily reported on Thursday morning, following the series of huge explosions late Wednesday at a warehouse for dangerous materials in the city.

The newspaper quoted Doctor Wu Chunping's saying that the commodities stored at the explosive warehouse include hazardous chemicals such as sodium cyanide and toluene diisocyanate which can penetrate into human bodies through the skin and cause poisoning.

Dr. Wu suggested preventive measures be taken. People should better wear gas masks so as not to expose their mouths and skin, he said.

Wu explained that a single hazardous chemical explosion can be relatively easily targeted, while the situation in the Tianjin accident on Wednesday is different and more difficult to handle because it involved many varieties of hazardous chemicals.

In addition, a variety of hazardous chemicals will interact after the explosion to form more stable and more complex compounds and produce other toxic substances that fill the air and are difficult to dispel. Therefore, the follow-up work must include physical protection, Dr. Wu said.