CHINA-BLAST/RESIDENTS Tianjin residents demand property developer to buy back homes

Record ID: 143548

  • Title: CHINA-BLAST/RESIDENTS Tianjin residents demand property developer to buy back homes
  • Date: 18th August 2015
  • Summary: TIANJIN, CHINA (AUGUST 18, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF BUILDING WHERE HOMEOWNERS GATHERED HOMEOWNERS LOOKING DOWN AT MEETING MEETING IN PROGRESS HOMEOWNER SPEAKING VARIOUS OF HOMEOWNER SHOWING DESTRUCTION AT COMPOUND ON MOBILE PHONE (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) LIANFA HOMEOWNER RICK LIU, SAYING: "There's no one willing to live there now, even if you gave me it for free I wouldn'
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADYTNZKRBOEXH0MD67C5UTD7X
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Tempers flared as hundreds of Tianjin blast homeowners demanded developer to buy back their damaged property on Tuesday (August 18).
    Homeowners at the Lianfa housing development complex located less than a kilometre from the site of the blasts gathered at another development owned by Lianfa company, demanding the developer buy back their homes, after the explosions rendered them "uninhabitable".
    "There's no one willing to live there now, even if you gave me it for free I wouldn't live there. Because the environmental issue is far too serious, when we go there now our eyes and throats feel really uncomfortable. It feels really bad," homeowner of Lianfa Rick Liu said.
    The Lianfa homeowners believed they have fallen through the cracks as they have not been classified as residents within the two-kilometre exclusion zone by the government due to the fact that their homes were not finished at the time of the explosions.
    Now they wanted the developer to buy back their homes, as they believed they have become unlivable.
    "We shouldn't bear the responsibility for the property as it hasn't been transferred to us. The responsibility is on you, the developer, we can't go to the government, what's the use of us going to the government? it's not our obligation to bear responsibility for this so we're coming to you. So seeing as you've come here today you should have a plan for us," said an unidentified homeowner.
    "Throughout the entire development process we didn't receive anything that told us there was a dangerous good storage facility within a kilometre," said Jin Ming, a representative of the company, who looked visibly uncomfortable being surrounded by so many of his company's irate customers.
    The explosions sent massive fireballs into the sky and hurled burning debris across the industrial area at the world's 10th-largest port, burning out buildings and shattering windows kilometres away.
    Soldiers and rescue workers in gas masks and hazard suits continued to search for toxic materials at the blast site, the goal is to clear the chemicals before any rain falls, which could create further toxic gas.
    Officials said environmental standards were still "basically guaranteed" and that there were contingency plans to prevent possible rainfall from creating dangerous gases or spreading contamination.
    Some 6,300 people have been displaced by the blasts.
    China's top prosecutor, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, has opened an investigation into the warehouse explosions.
    Industrial accidents are not uncommon in China after three decades of fast economic growth.
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