New Fires Break Out at China Explosion Site

New fires erupted Friday near the site of last week’s deadly Tianjin warehouse blasts—a disaster, according to one human rights expert, that further shows need for transparency regarding hazardous substances.

Firefighters were working to contain the fires, three of which occurred near the blast site, state-run Xinhua News Agency reports.  The fourth broke out at a parking lot near the blast area.

The report of the new fires comes a day after the Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau said that levels of a toxic chemical in waters near the site were far above safe levels.

“An excessive level of cyanide was detected in eight locations with the highest reaching 356 times” the permitted level, the bureau said.

Seven hundreds tons of sodium cyanide had been stored at the warehouse, among other hazardous chemicals.

Also this week, thousands of dead fish washed up on the shores of the Haihe River, near the site of the explosions.

Deng Xiaowen, director of the Tianjin Environmental Monitoring Center, attributed the large number of dead fish to hypoxia as a result of high temperatures.