By Kevin M. Mathewson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
DEHUI, China –Eleven local Chinese officials have been detained as a result of a June 3rd fire at a poultry plant in China’s Jilin province that left 121 people dead and dozens of others injured. Investigators said an electrical short circuit ignited materials at the plant, causing the blaze which spread rapidly.
Those detained include the head of Dehui’s Mishazi township and the former head of the local construction bureau. Several fire department officials were also among those apprehended.
“Some of the suspects… falsified information to hide the facts that no serious fire safety inspections had been conducted and that proper fire safety equipment was not in place.” said the Xinhua news agency, citing the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
The poultry plant fire is China’s deadliest fire since 2000, when 309 people died in a blaze in a dance hall in Luoyang, in Henan province.
The deadly blaze has raised safety concerns after it has been suspected that local authorities are focusing on boosting economic development and ignoring workplace safety regulations.
Workers who escaped the fire at the Jilin plant said that the building’s narrow hallways made it difficult to reach the exits. It was also reported by local media that people struggled to escape because some exits were blocked.
The poultry plant is far away from chief regulators in China’s capital, making the plant’s operations difficult to oversee. “It is harder to regulate smaller companies in smaller cities and towns.” said Zhao Zhengbring, a lawyer working on health and safety issues with Beijing’s Haowei law firm.
In an effort to address these problems, China’s Communist leaders have created several competing industrial safety organizations. These efforts have had some positive results. Workplace accidents have dropped more than 33% in the past five years and the death toll from those accidents have dropped more than 29%, according to comments made by China’s then Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang.
Yet, fire accidents at construction sites and agricultural production factories are on the rise. Critics argue that factory managers are rarely punished for workplace accidents.
“Safety, unfortunately, still comes second to productivity and profits. There are, unfortunately, deaths at coal mines and factories pretty much every day, but no-one pays attention when it is one or two people.” Says Geoggrey Crothall, a spokesman for the Hong Kong based China Labour Bulletin.
Without public pressure, it is unlikely that significant changes will be implemented anytime soon.
For further information, please see:
BBC News – Officials held over deadly China poultry fire – 5 July 2013
BBC News – China poultry plant fire raises safety standards concerns – 3 June 2013
BBC News – Dehui poultry plant fire: Locked exits ‘blocked escape’ – 3 June 2013
BBC News – In pictures: China factory fire – 3 June 2013
