by Our Foreign Desk

OVER 100 residents whose homes were damaged in the massive Tianjin blasts last week gathered yesterday to demand government compensation.

“We victims demand: Government, buy back our houses,” said a banner carried by the residents at a protest outside the Tianjin hotel where officials have held daily news conferences about the disaster.

“Kids are asking: How can we grow up healthy?” read another banner.

The blasts on Wednesday night originated at a warehouse for hazardous material, where 700 tons of sodium cyanide, a toxic chemical that can form combustible substances on contact with water, were being stored in amounts that violated safety rules.

That has prompted contamination fears and a major clean-up of a three-kilometre-radius, cordoned-off area of the port city.

The death toll from the disaster has risen to 114, with 70 still missing.

Official work safety rules require such facilities to be at least 1,000 metres away from homes, public buildings and major roads, but online map searches show that the Ruihai International Logistics warehouse was within 500 metres of both an expressway and a 100,000-square-metre block of flats.

The flats had walls singed and windows shattered. All the residents have been evacuated.

Tianjin officials have been hard pressed to explain how the warehouse was allowed to operate in its location.

Questions have also been raised about the management of the warehouse. Ruihai’s general manager is in hospital under police watch.

China’s top prosecuting office announced on Sunday that it was setting up a team to investigate possible offences related to the blasts, including dereliction of duty and abuse of power.

Bian Jiang, a resident of one of the nearby housing complexes, said he had been asleep when the first explosion struck shortly before midnight.

“Twenty seconds later, I heard the second explosion and saw the rising mushroom cloud. Then I was thrown out of bed by the force of the blast. I was wondering if we would able to get out alive,” he said, explaining that his home is now ruined and adding: “All the windows are gone.”

A number of foreign companies have announced a suspension of operations around the port following the disaster.