On the afternoon of August 22 at 14:24, the Tianjin local fire brigade received a call about a major fire that broke out at the Xintiandi high-rise office building in the city’s Nankai district nearby the Line 1 Haiguangsi subway station.
On social media platform Weibo, the topic went trending and received over 410 million views on Tuesday (“Tianjin Fire” #天津着火#).
Eyewitnesses shared that office workers hurried out of the building, some holding their laptop while rushing out. One local resident told reporters that the building had turned “completely red” (#天津火灾目击者称整栋楼全红了#)
According to the official Weibo account of China’s Fire Control (@中国消防), firefighter teams had reached the top of the building at around 15:50 to extinguish the fire that was still burning there.
THe situation on the Xintiandi building at around 15:50, source: @中国消防
While the huge fire captured the attention on Chinese social media, another fire reportedly also broke out at the same time near the city’s Xiyuehui (熙悦汇) Shopping Center.
This momentarily caused an eerie scene showing twin infernos blazing within the city simultaneously (image shared by Weibo user @iBingo). Speculation arose among some commentators, raising questions about the possibility of intentional ignition for both fires.
Some netizens used the news as an opportunity to play around with photoshop (see image below; image links to the Qixi Festival aka ‘Chinese Valentine’s Day’ which is celebrated today), but they also received criticism from others who that it was distasteful to be frivolous about such serious incidents – especially since it is not yet confirmed if people have been injured or killed in any of the fires.
Tianjin’s Tuesday took an even stranger turn on social media as rumors swirled about a potential third fire erupting in the city today, specifically at Anshan West Road (鞍山西道). However, no official reports substantiated the existence of a third fire. Some commenters speculated that the rumor might have arisen due to residents’ confusion regarding the origin of the smoke coming from the two existing fires.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Tianjin Nankai Fire Rescue department released a statement regarding the Xintiandi incident. According to their assessment, the fire is believed to have originated externally, igniting the outer walls and subsequently spreading. They reported no casualties.
Meanwhie, the Xinyuehui Shopping Center has confirmed that the second Tianjin fire did not take place at their venue, but allegedly at a factory site about a kilometer away. There are no further details known about that fire at the time of writing.
By Manya Koetse
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