BEIJING: Seventeen people were killed and 24 injured in a blaze at a Beijing garment workshop Monday, state media and officials said, the latest accident to highlight China's poor fire-safety record.
The fire broke out about 1 am (1700 GMT Sunday) in the four-story building in the capital's southern Daxing district, the agency quoted police as saying, adding that it was put out by firefighters about an hour later.
A woman official who answered the phone at the local government headquarters in Jiugong town, where the fire took place, confirmed the numbers of dead and wounded but said she had no other details.
The fire broke out on the first-floor unlicensed garment workshop before spreading to upper floors that housed the facility's workers, Xinhua quoted a fire official as saying.
Deadly fires are common in China and are typically blamed on lax observation and enforcement of fire-safety measures.
The government routinely orders nationwide safety crackdowns after particularly deadly fires, but such disasters continue to occur.
In November, a fire engulfed a high-rise apartment building in Shanghai, leaving 58 people dead.
A preliminary investigation blamed that inferno on careless work by unlicensed welders who ignited nylon netting swathing the building, which was being renovated to improve energy efficiency.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.