At least 119 people were killed and dozens injured yesterday when a blaze tore through a locked poultry slaughterhouse in the northeast of China, the latest disaster to highlight China’s grim industrial safety record.
The fire broke out just after dawn near the town of Dehui in Jilin province, when local residents said they heard three big explosions, followed by the fire.
Footage on China Central Television showed thick black smoke pouring out of a one-storey factory building, partially covered with an arched roof. There were flames licking out of vents in the roof, while firefighters on the ground were hosing the blaze and debris in the structure.
Survivors told state media that only one door to the plant was open while other exits were locked and the fire spread within three minutes.
Survivor Wang Xiujuan said people were climbing over each other to get out through the corridor to the one open exit, it was chaotic and most had to crawl out.
Wang Fengya told the Xinhua news agency that the alarm was raised shortly after a shift change at 6 am.
“When I finally ran out and looked back at the plant, I saw high flames,” Ms Wang told Xinhua. She was evacuated to a hospital in the nearby provincial capital of Changchun.
Locker room
Employees told CCTV the fire may have started in a locker room at a time when 350 workers were at the slaughterhouse.
“About 100 workers have managed to escape from the plant whose gate was locked when the fire occurred,” Xinhua said.
It is the worst industrial accident in China since a mining disaster in 2008 that claimed 281 lives and it is the deadliest fire since a blaze at a nightclub in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, killed 44 people in 2008.
“It happened so fast, we first saw a flash, then there was a big ‘bang’,” one unnamed employee told CCTV. “We knew it was bad, so then we all ran. We didn’t know what happened, we didn’t know it was an explosion.”
Another worker quoted by Xinhua, Guo Yan (39), said the emergency exit at her workstation could not be opened and she was knocked to the ground in the crush of workers seeking to escape through a side door.
“I could only crawl desperately forward. I worked alongside an old lady and a young girl, but I don’t know if they survived or not,” Ms Guo said.
The provincial government said it sent more than 500 firefighters and more than 270 doctors and nurses to the scene and had also evacuated 3,000 nearby residents as a precaution.
There was speculation that the fire was caused by a liquid ammonia leak, as many at the site said they could smell the liquid, which is used in the cooling system at the processing plant.
The provincial fire department appeared to confirm this view on its microblog.
Chinese president Xi Jinping, currently on a visit to Latin America and the United States, ordered that no effort be spared to rescue and treat survivors as well as to investigate the cause of the incident.
1,200 employees
The slaughterhouse is owned by a small local feed and poultry producer called Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company. The company produces 67,000 tonnes of processed chicken a year and employs about 1,200 people.
The incident prompted outraged commentary on China's popular Twitter-like service Sina Weibo.
“I hope the relevant people get punished and I hope relevant departments can take it seriously,” wrote Chigong, while Minggong hanshu wrote: “We need answers. Don’t make us angry by giving us no reason for the fire.”
Meanwhile, victims’ relatives gathered outside the building to “demand the government investigate and announce the cause of the accident as soon as possible”, Xinhua said.
