爆炸核心区检查有毒化学品面临挑战

One of the priorities of the clean- up operation is to detect toxic chemical substances in the core area of the blast site. We followed the Chemical Defense Team of Beijing Military Area Command into the core area on Thursday.

Dressed in protective suits...ready to enter a hazardous zone. These soldiers trained in chemical warfare, are responding to an emergency of epic proportions. Working 12 hours a day, they are taking turns to enter the core area of the blast site to detect toxic substances. Its not a smooth advance however. Shortly after they start, a soldier notices huge smoke rising several meters away.

The team has to take a detour because it doesn't know what the source of the smoke is. Blast residue and burned metal is everywhere. And chemical experts warn soldiers not to step into puddles of water.

"We must avoid stepping into the water as we do not know what's in it. There may be corrosive or toxic content in it," Chemical defense expert Liu Meng said.

Soldiers take another route. But more smoke stops them going forward. Experts make checks and determine the smoke is from burning hay inside the container. The smoke is not dangerous. But given that the protective masks only work for forty minutes, soldiers have to head back out due to safety concerns. On their way back, they test samples of burnt residue.

"The test results are normal and the residue doesn't contain any toxic chemical substances," A soldier said.

This is an extremely challenging task. Soldiers only have limited time to test samples inside the core area due to the limitations of temperature, weather and equipment. In addition, they need to also deal with possible sunstroke due to the heat generated from wearing airtight protective suits.