China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Claiming guilt
A suspect arrested for starting fatal factory fire in Guangdong confesses.
Anger over delayed wages led a worker to set fire to an underwear factory in Shantou, Guangdong province, local police said on Wednesday.
e blaze killed 14 people, mainly migrant workers aged between 18 and 29, police said. A girl, 17, was also seriously injured.
Liu Shuangyun, 26, from Hunan province, told police that he started the fire on Tuesday because he couldn’t get his boss to pay him the amount that he was owed, police said.
According to Chen Zhiwei, deputy director of the Chaonan district public security bureau, where the factory is located, 27 workers were inside the factory when the fire started at 3:30 pm on Tuesday.
Liu — who allegedly bought petroleum and a lighter to start the fire and fled the scene afterward — was caught by police in the neighboring city of Puning at around 10 pm on Tuesday.
In an interview with Guangdong Television, Liu said that he did not think about the consequences of his act, and that he regrets the loss of his former colleagues’ lives.
Police sources said that the boss, surnamed Chen, owed Liu about 3,000 yuan ($477.50).
Before the fire, Liu sent Chen a text message on Tuesday morning.
“You must pay me. Otherwise, you won’t live until tomorrow,” Liu’s message said.
Liu later called Chen twice, but he did not answer the phone.
“I was very angry because the boss didn’t pay me,” Liu told the TV station. “I only wanted to teach the boss a lesson. I was very impulsive because I was very, very angry,” he said.
Chen is under police control and is willing to cooperate in the further investigation, police said.
In the area of the Chendian township in Chaonan district — which has hundreds of similar small underwear factories nearby — only a few residents wanted to talk about the fire on Wednesday.
“Many girls were working at the factory when the fire started. A lot of smoke rose from the building,” said a resident surnamed Zhang.
“Some workers and the boss’s family, who were also in the building, managed to escape,” Chen Zhiwei said at a news conference on Wednesday.
The fire was contained within half an hour and completely put out within an hour, he said.
“Some workers died because of the strong smoke,” he added.
Zhang Chengwen, the father of the seriously injured girl, told China Daily that his another daughter was also injured in the fire.
“She ran away from the fire. And I kept looking for her until the evening,” he said.
Zhang’s family, who came from Guizhou province some 20 years ago to Chaonan district, live near the factory.
“My younger daughter is only slightly injured. She was so scared when I finally found her in a nearby street,” he said.
Both girls began working at the factory after the Spring Festival, Zhang said.
“The boss was very kind and has never delayed my daughters’ wages,” he said.
Zhang, 46, said that local authorities immediately reached out to him and promised to help the family pay the medical fees.
“I borrowed about 1,000
I was very angry because the boss didn’t pay me ... I only wanted to teach the boss a lesson. I was very impulsive because I was very, very angry.” LIU SHUANGYUN EMPLOYEE SUSPECTED OF ARSON
yuan from a friend to pay the medical bills for my younger daughter,” he said.
His older daughter is in the intensive care unit of a local hospital. Doctors said that she is in stable condition.
The medical fees for Zhang’s younger daughter were refunded by the local government, which also paid the salaries in advance for his two daughters on Wednesday.
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