Xi urges production safety after fire accident kills 38 in Henan

▶ Putting the people and their lives first underlined

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday urged local governments to put the people and their lives first and stressed responsibility for production safety in order to prevent major accidents, after a fire broke out in Anyang, Central China’s Henan Province that killed 38 people and injured two.

Xi gave important instructions on the accident, stressing that efforts should be made to treat the injured, properly comfort families of the victims and deal with the aftermath, the cause of the accident should be identified, and those responsible should be held accountable seriously in accordance with the law.

The president required local authorities to learn a profound lesson from the Henan accident, fully investigate and rectify all kinds of risks and hidden dangers, and resolutely prevent and curb major accidents.

The official account of Anyang authorities on Tuesday released a notice about the blaze, stating that on Monday evening, Anyang’s fire and rescue detachment received a public alarm over a fire at a trading company in Wenfeng district.

After receiving the alarm, the city’s fire and rescue detachment immediately dispatched forces to the scene, and public security, emergency, power supply and other joint working units rushed to the scene to carry out emergency treatment and rescue.

At about 8 pm, the fire was largely extinguished, before being completely subdued three hours later.

According to preliminary reports, the accident killed 38 people as of Tuesday. Two people were hospitalized with minor injuries. Suspects believed to be behind the accident were taken into police custody on Tuesday. According to the disposal team on site, the accident was caused by the illegal operation of electric welding.

Based on the preliminary information, the cause of the accident is that during the welding operation in the warehouse on the first floor, some cotton wool drifted by and caught fire, which ignited a large amount of cloth stacked in the workshop, a person responsible for emergency management told the Xinhua News Agency.

The smoke caused some workers on the second floor to suffocate, and they died without having time to escape.

Wang Hongwei, a professor from the School of Public Administration and Policy with the Renmin University of China, suggested that to prevent such accidents, enterprises – especially those that have potential risks – should have more targeted and effective emergency plans.

“It is also important for enterprises to conduct emergency drills for employees,” Wang said.