Illegal Fireworks Caused Massive Beijing Blaze

The spectacular blaze that gutted a Beijing skyscraper at the CCTV complex was the result of an illegal fireworks display set up by one of the Chinese Television's employees.

Fire authorities in Beijing said the fireworks were high-explosive devices that were set off illegally Monday evening during celebrations to mark the end of the Lunar New Year holiday. One firefighter died after inhaling toxic fumes while battling the fire and seven other people were injured.

CCTV issued a statement Tuesday saying one of its employees hired a company without authorization to let off fireworks in a compound that houses the Television Cultural Center building, which was gutted by the blaze. That building – in the shape of a silver boot -- is next door to the landmark $800 million CCTV tower, which appears to be undamaged, according to a fire department official on the scene Tuesday.

In its broadcast statement, CCTV apologized for causing "serious damage to the country's treasure," referring to these two buildings, part of an award-winning design by architect Rem Koolhaas that helped to transform the Beijing skyline ahead of the August Olympics.

The admission of culpability is an embarrassment for the powerful state broadcaster. The statement went on to say the broadcaster felt "heartache" and it apologized "for the traffic jam and inconvenience to people around the area." Almost 600 firemen, 85 fire-engines and 16 military units were involved in fighting the flames within the vast compound, which is about the size of 37 football fields.

Massive Fire Breaks Out in Beijing Skyscraper

A major fire broke out at China's CCTV complex, which was one of the featured buildings in the Beijing skyline during last year's Olympics.

A fierce fire engulfed a major new building in Beijing that houses a luxury hotel and cultural center on Monday, the last day of celebrations for the lunar new year when the city was ablaze with fireworks.

The building was designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and is part of China Central Television’s new headquarters, an angular wonder of modernist architecture that sits astride the city and was built to coincide with the Beijing Olympics last year. The CCTV building was a hugely expensive trophy of Beijing’s pre-Olympics building boom, costing millions of dollars, and any damage is likely to be embarrassing for the ruling Communist Party.

The fire was burning from the ground floor to the top floor of the large building, the flames reflecting in the glass facade of the main CCTV tower next to the hotel and cultural center. The 241-room Mandarin Oriental hotel in the building was due to open this year. Flames were first spotted around 7:45 p.m. and within 20 minutes the fire had spread throughout the building, dominating that part of the city.

That suggests that the sprinkler systems were not operating properly, or were overwhelmed. Either scenario isn't good news, and there are reports of debris falling onto the streets below.

Here's the video:



You'll note the appearance of fireworks in front of the fire, and it's not clear whether fireworks had anything to do with the fire.

This is a developing situation.

UPDATE:
CNN has additional video from closer to the scene.

UPDATE:
Here's more detail on the Mandarin Oriental hotel that was scheduled to open in the affected building. It's the building on the left in the artistic rendering.

Other reports are indicating the fire may have started because of the fireworks display in the vicinity. The CCTV complex, including the affected building were designed by Rotterdam, Netherlands, architects Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren for the firm OMA. The hotel building also included restaurants, visitors center, a theater and exhibition spaces.

UPDATE:
The conspiracy freaks think that this fire and that the building has not collapsed as yet is somehow proof that something nefarious happened at 7WTC on 9/11. Yes, something nefarious did happen on 9/11 - airlines destroyed the Twin Towers and the falling debris from the towers damaged key structural members and the resulting uncontrolled fires led to the collapse hours after the rest of the complex.

Here's another video:


UPDATE:
It appears that firefighters have knocked down the fire:



The cause remains under investigation.

NBC: Save the Planet; But Our Outdoor Set Needs AC

Hypocrites. The network regularly runs overheated claims about global warming and what people must do to reduce their carbon footprint.

I'm sure most folks don't have air conditioning systems built to specifically cool their outdoor spaces. NBC does at their Beijing television set.

“The set is outside, but air conditioning vents make the weather bearable,” Anne Marie Tiernon wrote for WTHR Eyewitness News on August 14.

Even NBC “Today” co-host Matt Lauer remarked about the air conditioning, but said it was still uncomfortable even with it.

“The first couple of nights even with the air conditioning it was steamy in here, but we've been lucky ever since,” Lauer said to WTHR. “It’s been overcast some days, takes the temperature down. We call it fog smog.”

Last fall, the network performed a publicity stunt on its November 4 broadcast of its highly rated Sunday Night NFL Football show, “Football Night in America.” The broadcast used limited lighting for the broadcast and even went completely dark for the final moments of the program.

The effort was to raise awareness and set an example for the rest of the country, however, the same example isn’t being set for the broadcast from the world’s biggest polluter, China.

The air is still uncomfortable for Matt Lauer. Quick, someone turn the AC on high. You're outdoors and it's summer. What did you expect?

Once again, the hypocrisy of the man-made global warming crowd shines through. They will say and do anything to chastise people into reducing their own power usage, while they continue to use power just as they always have.

UPDATE:
Instapundit links. Thanks!

The Obligatory Olympics Opening Ceremony Post

The Beijing Olympics has opened today with all the usual pomp and circumstance. Yippee.

It's nice to see through all the haze, pollution, and obfuscation by the Chinese government.

They've created a Potemkin vision. They want the world to see that they're ready to join the world stage and assume a place of primacy. Too bad the luster wore off well before today. All that glamour and glitz hides the grim reality that the situation in China is an absolute mess. The fact that the Chinese have to repress speech, access to the Internet to report and research stories, etc., shows that the Chinese are trying to project an image of modernity and glamour, but they know that the truth is far more grim.

The Chinese efforts have been overshadowed by their repressive human rights - both inside China and for its support of genocidal regimes in places like Sudan and Zimbabwe. The air quality problems just scratch the surface of the massive environmental damage and ongoing failings to deal with pollution wrought by the government's need to grow the economic at a breakneck pace to stem dissent. The government's craven policy that restricts media access to the Internet for fear that some reporter might report on any of the travesties imposed on the Chinese people by the Communists are what have been exposed.

Ralph Peters is conducting his own boycott of the Games. I will watch some of the events but have no interest in watching the opening or closing ceremonies.

Clearing the Air

Mrs. Lawhawk made a most cogent point about the Chinese efforts to clear the air in Beijing for the Olympics.

Smog returned to Beijing's skies on Monday, despite claims by Chinese officials that drastic anti-pollution measures had slashed the chances of Olympic events having to be rescheduled.

The familiar murky air seen in the capital reduced visibility to a few hundred metres (yards) just four days before the Olympic opening ceremony.

The poor air followed three days of blue skies, that had led Chinese officials to trumpet the success of drastic anti-pollution measures.

The Chinese measures are only temporary.

The Chinese government is engaging in draconian measures to limit pollution - shutting down thousands of factories and power plants for weeks on end and is even considering banning 90% of cars from driving in Beijing during the Games.

So, what happens once the cheering at the Bird's Nest ends? The smog will return, worse than ever, and the factories will once again resume belching all manner of pollutants into the air.

How exactly is that an improvement? The Chinese are simply putting a band aid on an environmental nightmare and no one bothers to call them on it. The media would rather focus on the extraordinary efforts that the Chinese are going to in order to make the skies clear for the Games, but few are focusing on what will happen the moment the Olympic torch goes out.

The Chinese cannot shut down thousands of factories and power plants permanently because it would throw the Chinese economy into chaos and the Chinese government needs the economy to remain robust to keep whatever criticism that has spread about the government to a minimum.

So, while the Chinese will pray for clear air for the Games, everyone should be focusing on what will happen the next day and what the Chinese (and everyone else around the globe) will be breathing. That means you folks in Los Angeles will see your skies smog over as much as 25% of your pollution is not produced locally, but floating over from China.

Their pollution mess becomes our pollution mess, and it doesn't matter what we have accomplished because it will negated by what China does.

UPDATE:
So, what will China do after the Olympics? It will monitor the pollution levels. Eventually:

"We should be able to start regular monitoring of ozone and PM2.5 (particle matter) next year, which would lead to measures to deal with them," Fan told a press conference.

He was speaking in response to reports that China's environmental authorities had failed to include fine particles and ozone into their pollution measurements, causing ignorance of health damage caused by the pollutants.

Fine particles, known as PM2.5, are tiny solid particles of 2.5micrometers in diameter and smaller. Health experts believe they are unhealthy to breathe and have been associated with fatal illnesses and other serious health problems.

New York Times' Flawed China Coverage

It starts with the headline, and goes down from there.

Apparently, the New York Times thinks that the repression and brutality of the Chinese government has improved; the repression of free speech, access to information, and mass arrests notwithstanding. The Chinese government hopes for a politics free games - even if it means repressing the voices of those that might speak against them.

And that doesn't even get into the ecological nightmares created by the Chinese policies of economic growth at all costs and the subsequent massive efforts to curtail all economic activity ahead of the Olympic games so that the athletes can actually breathe comfortably.

It goes without saying that there's no way that the Chinese government will keep the harsh and restrictive bans on businesses and economic activities past the Olympics. So, don't expect the skies to be anywhere near as clean as they are now (and it's still not good despite a single good day today).