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ByChristopherBodeen The Associated Press TIANJIN, CHINA Huge ex- plosions at a warehouse for dangerous materials in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin killed at least 17 people, injured hundreds and sent massive fireballs into the night sky, officials and witnesses said Thurs- day. China's state broad- caster, CCTV, said that at least 17 people were killed and that 32 were in critical condition in hospital. Hun- dreds of others were taken to hospital. The explosions late Wednesday knocked off doors of buildings in the area and shattered win- dows up to several kilome- ters (miles) away. "I thought it was an earthquake, so I rushed downstairs without my shoes on," Tianjin resident Zhang Siyu, whose home is several kilometers from the blast site, said in a tele- phone interview. "Only once I was outside did I realize it was an explosion. There was the huge fireball in the sky with thick clouds. Ev- erybody could see it." Zhang said she could see wounded people weep- ing. She said she did not see anyone who had been killed, but "I could feel death." Police in Tianjin said an initial blast took place at shipping containers in a warehouse for hazardous materials owned by Rui- hai Logistics, a company that says it's properly ap- proved to handle hazard- ous materials. State media said senior management of the company had been de- tained by authorities. It's part of an industrial park, with some apartment buildings in the vicinity. The official Xinhua News agency said an initial explo- sion triggered other blasts at nearby businesses. The National Earthquake Bu- reau reported two major blasts before midnight, the first with an equivalent of 3 tons of TNT, and the sec- ond with the equivalent of 21 tons. Photos taken by bystand- ers and circulating on mi- croblogs show a gigantic fireball high in the sky, with a mushroom-cloud. Other photos on state media out- lets showed a sea of fire that painted the night sky bright orange, with tall plumes of smoke. About 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the explosion site is the luxury Fifth Ave- nue apartment complex on a road strewn with broken glass and pieces of charred metal thrown from explo- sion. Like surrounding buildings, the Mediterra- nean style complex had all its windows blown out, and some of its surfaces were scorched. "It's lucky no one had moved in," said a worker on the site, Liu Junwei, 29. "But for us it's a total loss. Two years hard work down the drain." "It had been all quiet, then the sky just lit up brighter than day and it looked like a fireworks show," said another worker on the site who gave just his surname, Li. In one neighborhood about 10 to 20 kilometers (6 to 12 miles) from the blast site, some residents were sleeping on the street wear- ing gas masks, although there was no perceptible problem with the air apart from massive clouds of smoke seen in the distance. "It was like what we were told a nuclear bomb would be like," said truck driver Zhao Zhencheng, who spent the night in the cab of his truck. "I've never even thought I'd see such a thing. It was terrifying but also beautiful." At the nearby Taida Hos- pital as dawn broke, mili- tary medical tents were set up. Photos circulating on- line showed patients in ban- dages and with cuts. State broadcaster CCTV said six battalions of fire- fighters had brought the en- suing fire under control, al- though it was still burning in the early hours of Thurs- day. Ruihai Logistics says on its website that it was estab- lished in 2011 and is an ap- proved company for han- dling hazardous materials. It says it handles 1 million tons of cargo annually. Tianjin, with a popula- tion of about 15 million, is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Beijing on the Bohai Sea and is one of the country's major ports. It is also one of China's more modern cities and is con- nected to the capital by a high speed rail line. DANGEROUS MATERIALS Atleast17aredeada er explosions hit China port By Matthew Brown and P. Solomon Banda The Associated Press DURANGO, COLORADO Toxic waste that gushed from a Colorado mine and threatened downstream water supplies in at least three states will continue to bedangerouswhencontam- inated sediment getsstirred up from the river bottom, authorities said Wednes- day, suggesting there is no easy fix to what could be a long-termpublichealthrisk. The immediate im- pact of the 3 million gal- lon spill on Aug. 5 eased as the plume of contam- ination dissipated on its way to Lake Powell along the Utah-Arizona border. But the strong dose of ar- senic, cadmium, lead and other heavy metals settled out as the wastewater trav- eled downstream, layering river bottoms with contam- inants sure to pose risks in the future. "There will be a source of these contaminants in the rivers for a long time," said hydrologist Tom My- ers, who runs a Nevada- based consulting business. "Every time there's a high flow, it will stir it up and it will be moving those con- taminants downstream." The U.S. Environmen- tal Protection Agency had pushed for 25 years to grant Superfund status to the partly collapsed Gold King mine and other idled mines leaking heavy metals above the old mining town of Silverton, Colorado. That would have brought in ma- jor funds for a comprehen- sive cleanup. Local authorities spurned federal interven- tion, leaving a smaller EPA- led team to investigate a small if steady stream of pollution. That team acci- dentally breached a debris wall at the mine, unleash- ing the pool of contami- nated water that turned the Animas River yellow. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, on a visit Wednesday to Durango, downstream of the spill site, said she had ordered agency personnel across the country to cease field investigation work on abandoned mines while the spill was investigated. EPA officials said they were seeking details on what the stop-work order means. State attorneys general from Colorado, New Mex- ico and Utah appeared sep- arately in Durango, pledg- ing to make sure residents are compensated for dam- ages from the spill. But they said they would hold off on legal action against the fed- eral government to give the EPAachancetoproveitwill be accountable. Also Wednesday, Colo- rado state health officials informed residents in Du- rango that they can resume using treatment facilities that draw water from the Animas. Long before the accident, mines in the Silverton area that were first developed in the late 1800s had been re- leasing steady streams of contaminated wastewa- ter into area creeks, leav- ing some of them virtually lifeless. WATER SUPPLIES Experts see long- term risks from Colorado mine spill BRENNANLINSLEY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Water flows through a series of retention ponds built to contain and filter out heavy metals and chemicals from the Gold King mine wastewater accident, in the spillway about 1/4 mile downstream from the mine, outside Silverton, Colo., on Wednesday. PHOTOS BY YUE YUEWEI — XINHUA Smoke and fire rise a er an explosion in the Binhai New Area in north China's Tianjin Municipality on Thursday. Smoke and fire erupt into the night sky a er an explosion in the Binhai New Area in north China's Tianjin Municipality Advertisement IfthiswasyourService Directory ad customers would be reading it right now!! 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