AP, BEIJING
Authorities were investigating a blaze at a shoe factory in southeastern China’s Fujian Province that killed 28 people, raising renewed concern over worker safety.A search has ended while an investigation is under way into the cause of the fire on Thursday that gutted the Fujian Huiteng factory in Jinjiang, a manufacturing hub for sports shoes, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.According to product listings on online sales and import platforms, Fujian Huiteng makes shoes for Chinese and foreign brands.
A photo released by Xinhua news agency shows firefighters at the scene of a footwear factory fire in Jiangtou Village in China’s Fujian Province on Thursday.
Local media footage showed people trapped on the roof of the five-floor building, enveloped in thick black smoke, while the spray from fire truck hoses fell short of flames showing through windows on its upper floors. The factory’s owner and managers were arrested and the company’s accounts were frozen, Xinhua said.
When the fire started, 237 factory workers and two visitors were in the building. Two of the 213 people rescued from the factory were pronounced dead after being taken to hospitals. Another 26 missing people were later confirmed dead, state broadcaster CCTV said.Work safety has been a persistent problem in China. In May, an explosion at a fireworks plant in the city of Changsha in central Hunan Province killed at least 37 people. In 2024, a fire at a refrigeration facility under construction killed 39 people in the city of Xinyu in the southeastern Jiangxi Province.Authorities have repeatedly ordered businesses to screen for workplace hazards. Official data show 18,261 people died in nearly 20,000 workplace accidents across the nation last year, down from the previous year.Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) demanded a swift investigation of the disaster and said authorities would “strictly hold those responsible accountable.”Jinjiang has thousands of shoe factories and is considered the “shoe capital” of China, making about one-fifth of all athletic shoes, more than 1 billion a year, according to state media and industry reports.The area’s transformation from small workshops and factories into an export industry hub, which Xi has often referred to as the “Jinjiang Experience,” is considered a model for China’s ascent as a world manufacturing power.CCTV said the fire started on the first level of the concrete-structured building, where a workshop and a warehouse were located.A local fire department official said in an interview with the state broadcaster that shoe sole material piled up in stairwells hindered firefighters from reaching the flames to extinguish them. The shoe materials were highly flammable, CCTV said.CCTV also said the fire department sent 183 people and 35 vehicles to the factory and that open flames were extinguished after about four hours. Xinhua later said more than 500 people joined the rescue-and-search operation.
