A fire at a shoe factory in Jinjiang, Quanzhou, Fujian province killed 28 people. President Xi Jinping issued instructions to spare no effort treating the injured and to determine the cause quickly; the emergency ministry dispatched a joint task force. The cause is under investigation.
A major fire at a shoe factory in Jinjiang city, Quanzhou, Fujian province has killed 28 people, Chinese state media including Huanqiu reported.
광고 문의 · 300×250The Ministry of Emergency Management sent a joint working group to Jinjiang to direct rescue and recovery work, as searches and medical evacuations continued.
Xi's 'important instructions'
President Xi Jinping issued instructions calling for all-out efforts to rescue and treat the injured, console bereaved families and swiftly establish the cause of the blaze.
He also urged officials to 'thoroughly investigate and rectify risks of every kind, implement workplace-safety measures in detail, and resolutely prevent major accidents.' Summer safety inspections are expected to widen nationwide.
Cause under investigation
Taiwan's United Daily News, citing mainland state media, also put the death toll at 28 and said the cause of ignition has not yet been determined.
Jinjiang, dense with sneaker and sporting-goods plants, is known as 'China's shoe capital.' With many labor-intensive factories, fire prevention has long been a challenge there.
Factory fires have recurred in China's coastal manufacturing belt, renewing scrutiny of whether basic measures — sprinklers, exits, control of combustibles — are actually enforced.
A third lens
Sinophone Bridge Times sees this tragedy not as a fault of any one system but as the 'safety cost' that fast-growing manufacturing economies have paid in common. Jinjiang trades heavily with Chinese merchants in Korea; verifying partner factories' safety standards is both risk management and social responsibility.
The real test will be how compensation and prevention measures are carried out after the recovery.
