evacuation zone around the site of the disaster. a few hours ago, during a live report right here on cnn, our crew was pushed around by someone trying to stop us from reporting. although it wasn t clear who that person was. reporter: the area that you re seeing here, these are some of the apartment complexes that are completely unlivable at the moment. please, sir, take your hand off our camera. please take your hand off our camera. please take your hand off our camera. [ speaking foreign language ] he s telling us that the air is poisonous and that s why we need to get away. and yet, you notice that the man himself is not wearing any protective gear, nor are any of the firefighters. so, they re trying to get us to leave and they re getting increasingly agitated because they don t want us pointing our camera towards the blast zone. they re saying that it s for our own safety. yet, none of the firefighters around us are wearing protective gear at the moment. meantime, anger over mis
i m isa soares and this is cnn newsroom. we want to begin this hour in tianjin in china, where a new fire has erupted near the site of wednesday s deadly chemical explosions. now, the blaze ignited a few hours ago, sending thick plumes, as you can see, of black smoke right into the sky. china state-run news is also reporting explosions were heard today in this area, and authorities have expanded their evacuation zone around the site of the disaster. for the very latest, let s bring in our correspondent, will ripley, live from tianjin in china. will, in looking at these images, the zone is clearly a very volatile area. we see you with your mask on. what are you hearing from experts on the ground and authorities there as to what led to these explosions? reporter: well, there s a lot of different chemicals that are being stored at that site, isa, and they re still adding to the list, and they re names that people might or might not
this blast site, he mentioned something called calcium carbide, and i went back to my chemistry days and looked, what does this actually do when it reacts with water? well, it s not great, and you can also find out from will ripley s live reports that the firefighters there are trying to douse the remaining spot fires around the blast sites with not water, but they re using sand and also a foam material to try and put out the flames. this is the chemical formula. it s used in the production of pvc plastics, so it s highly likely that it was within this port city at that time. it can be very dangerous, though, when mixed with h2o, or water. that reaction by-product being acetylene gas, which is an extremely highly flammable substance. so, the question begs to be answered, is there rain in this forecast? well, isa, not today. we will stay dry. but as we go forward over the next seven days, we do have rain, especially into tuesday and wednesday. you can see our forecast for tianjin callin
treated with respect or kindness just as if anyone else would be. reporter: it s a sentiment the injured detective knows all too well. he was unwilling to go on camera with cnn or be named for safety reasons. but in an interview with us, he said, a lot of officers are being too cautious because of what s going on in the media. i hesitated because i didn t want to be in the media like i am right now. it s hard times right now for us. according to the head of the police union here in birmingham, the suspect in the attack, 34-year-old gernard cunningham, spontaneously told police that the reason he attacked the officer is because of all the negative coverage of police across the country. he was arrested shortly after the incident and has been charged with attempted murder. we ve attempted to reach out to cunningham and his family. they ve declined comment. nick valencia, cnn, birmingham, alabama. we showed you the chemical explosion, the plumes of smoke in tianjin, china, but there
criminal charges for the owners of the factory, if it turns out that there was criminal negligence. but there is a heavy police presence here. and if you look inside this emergency shelter, which yesterday was full of thousands of people you can see now it has been evacuated. we believe those families are at a safer distance, farther away from this area. but still, look at all of these folks who are here kind of standing around, not really sure what they re supposed to do next. yeah, many questions remain for people there. this must be a very worrying time. will ripley for us in tianjin in china. do keep us posted on any developments out of there, will. thanks very much. now, chinese officials, as you heard from will, still don t know all of the chemicals that may still be in the blast site, but some believed to be there could mix dangerously with rain water. meteorologist derek van dam has been looking more at this and why it poses some danger, looking into specifically the fore