Dozens dead in factory fire in Chinese city of Anyang – state media

Thirty-eight people have died after a fire at a company dealing in chemicals and other industrial goods in central China, local authorities said.

The fire broke out in Anyang city, in the central Henan Province about 4.30pm on Monday and it took firefighters about three-and-a-half hours to bring the blaze at the premises of Kaixinda Trading Co under control, the local Wenfang district government said.

No details have yet been given on the cause of the fire or how so many employees were killed.

Online listings for Kaixinda said it was a wholesaler dealing in a wide range of industrial goods including what was described as specialised chemicals

Broadcaster CCTV reported: “After receiving the alarm, the municipal fire rescue detachment immediately dispatched forces to the scene.

“Public security, emergency response, municipal administration, and power supply units rushed to the scene at the same time to carry out emergency handling and rescue work,” it said.

Authorities said “criminal suspects” had been taken into custody in connection with the fire, but did not provide further details.

Industrial accidents are common in China due to weak safety standards and corruption among officials tasked with enforcing them.

In June, one person was killed and another injured in an explosion at a chemical plant in Shanghai. The fire at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co plant in the outlying Jinshan district sent thick clouds of smoke over a vast industrial zone as three fires blazed in separate locations.

Last year, a gas blast killed 25 people and reduced several buildings to rubble in the central city of Shiyan.

In March 2019, an explosion at a chemical factory in Yancheng, located 260km (161 miles) from Shanghai, killed 78 people and devastated homes in a several-kilometre radius.

Four years prior, a giant explosion in northern Tianjin at a chemical warehouse killed 165 people, one of China’s worst-ever industrial accidents.

With Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters

Photograph: Chinese State Media Dozens of people have died in a factory fire in the Chinese city of Anyang, state media reported.