VIDEO: It was like hell: A firefighter who survived Tianjin blast speaks of his experience

As reported by Euronews, eighteen year-old Xiao Xu was one of the first firefighters sent to tackle the blaze that ripped through a chemicals warehouse in the port of Tianjin last week.

“The whole sky was lit up. And, the blast wave sent me into the air. My helmet was gone. It was like a different world, with flames falling like raindrops on my head. The visibility was four to five meters.”

“Then, I looked for safer places to hide and searched for [my] colleagues. But, I couldn’t see any of them. The visibility was very low. I called their names, but no-one responded.” Xiao said one of his colleagues, who was 23-years-old died in the explosions.