Another group of heroes has also drawn increasing attention-the chemical defense team from the PLA Beijing Military Area Command.
On the side of the mourning wall hangs a board listing the names of firefighters missing since the Tianjin blast with a sentence that reads: "We are here waiting for you to come back."
One sentence in the Newseum in Washington has stuck in my mind since a trip last summer: When you see people run against the crowd toward the danger, they are probably firefighters, police or journalists.
I have mixed feelings about the fact that I've run into three interviewees in a single day who less than a month ago traveled a long way to work in Tianjin.