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Ambulance

Construction workers inside an ambulance after a gas explosion next to their dormitory. Chaoyang district, Beijing 6th May 2009.

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Last night just after 9pm there was a huge bang outside our apartment building, followed by screams and the sound of breaking glass, it sounded like an entire building had collapsed. We ran to the window and could see huge plumes of smoke billowing between the trees that run along the back alley. We quickly went outside and saw crowds of people on the street outside a workers' dormitory that was up in flames.

A group of construction workers stood only in their underpants, they had clearly been sleeping when the explosion happened in the run down building that they and some 50 people had been living in since working on the construction site at the end of the road.

The building was by this point, only 5 minutes after the explosion, completely swallowed by flames, which started to engulf the nearby trees. 'Hai you ren ma?' are there still people (inside) everyone was asking. 'Bu zhi dao' (don't know). I felt completely hopeless and over the road the group of semi-naked men were huddled together in complete shock, their feet bleeding from running over the broken glass.

I was torn between what to do, by this point I had no camera and was starting to feel incredibly angry about the lack of safety in the places that these workers have to live in. We ran home and took some old clothes and water to give to them, me also collecting my camera on the way.

Outside my apartment building workers were being put into ambulances, and fire trucks
were plugging in to the water supply. The police, followed by the military, arrived, and people were asked to move down the road away from the scene.

Today I found from the local newspaper that a gas canister had exploded in the kitchen, which was directly connected with the dormitory. More than 30 people were injured and at least 3 killed. This morning the site had been covered up with tarpaulin and all the glass was clear.

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Uploaded on May 6, 2009

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