Engineering Risk Management: Lessons from the Tianjin China Explosion

Running head: ENGINEERING RISK MANAGEMENT
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ENGINEERING RISK MANAGEMENT
Name
Institutional Affiliation

ENGINEERING RISK MANAGEMENT 2
Tianjin China Explosion
Introduction
The Tianjin China Explosion occurred on the 12th August of 2015.It involved a series of
explosions that killed 173 people and many more were injured in the warehouse at the shipping
port (Huang & Zhang, 2015). The explosion occurred in a range of 30 seconds. The second blast
had more impact and involved the discharge of 800 tons of ammonium nitrate. The first fires
caused added explosions over the weekend till 15th (Fu et al, 2016).
What went wrong?
This warehouse had containers with very dangerous chemicals that were flammable
which included ammonium nitrate, sodium nitrate, calcium carbide and sodium cyanide.
Firefighters sprayed water on certain chemicals when trying to control the blaze which
led to increased blasts (Jing, 2015).
Cause/effect of the disaster
Calcium carbide is a chemical that was in the warehouse reacted with the sprayed water
resulting to acetylene which is highly reactive. This said acetylene ignited other chemicals to
blast (Aitao & Lingpang, 2017).
The disaster in question destroyed many goods in the port located at Binhai New District.
Many large shipping containers were thrown into the air where they were crumpled by the
detonations. Due to this the port remained partially closed since only one side of the port was
destroyed. This still affected the north as a whole because the port is used as a gateway for most

ENGINEERING RISK MANAGEMENT 3
imported and exported goods to Northern China. The restricted movement and strict checking
slowed down activities affecting some industries that relied on the port.
Many cars in the ports` logistics park were destroyed by the fireball.1500 of Renault’s
cars and the 4000 of Hyundai cars were on site hence destroyed altogether.
The waves of the blasts moved even to residential areas shattering windows and even tearing
apart door hinges. Residents of the area neighboring the port had to flee their homes into local
schools for refuge. More than 720 people were hospitalized as a result of being critically injured.
How it could have been avoided
The blasts could have been avoided if there were transparency and a time information.
Information about the dangerous chemical should have been conveyed to the respective people
so as to protect human rights or even create awareness about them. Conveying the information
would have mitigated the risk and prevented the disaster as well.
Lesson learned from the explosion
Most people that gave the lessons included the insurers, those involved in loss adjusting
and also reinsurers.
 There should be a change in the thinking of accumulation of risk. Many insurers and
reinsurers got exposed to many claims at a go. Claims from policyholders and many
business lines. This is because the blast affected people, property, vehicles, marine and
also infrastructure. Too much risk was accumulated.

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Due to this, the need to collect data for how long a ship should remain at a port which
would help a carrier determine its market share at a certain time and place was
highlighted. This would help avoid potential arising from accumulated risk.
 The disaster proved that not only losses from natural calamities have a great impact.
 People also learned that it is good to have various supply chains so that a calamity
occurring at one chain does not paralyze economic activities of a given market.
 Strict measures of storage were to be upheld. This was mainly to prevent storage of
harmful products. This also included the government`s idea to zone chemical
manufacturers. These measures made warehouses owner reluctant to house harmful
goods.
 The need for education was highlighted. If the firefighters had information on how to
deal with the blaze from the chemicals, they wouldn`t have lost their lives.
RISK MANAGEMENT
This involves identifying and evaluation of risks and how to avoid, prevent or minimize
their impact.
Risks involved and their analysis
 Financial risk
These are risks resulting from investments, business operations or even assets.
Operational risk - This risk under finance came about when activities at the port were halted due
to the occurrence of the blast. The property was damaged and activities were not as usual. The
zone of the blast being a port, a lot of importation, exportation, loading, offloading and storage
takes place there. For any business that needed goods from there had to halt its operations. All