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China has seen a flare-up of fire disasters across the country since beginning of this month, with 140 people killed in 28 fire incidents in a mere three days--Feb.13 to 15 --a top Chinese police officer warned here Tuesday.
Guo Tienan, director of the Fire Protection Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, told a national teleconference on fire prevention that the fire situation in January was "stable" on the whole. However, several fires in the past fortnight have caused huge losses of lives and property.
On Feb. 15 alone, two major fires occurred in succession respectively in northeast China's Jilin Province and east China's Zhejiang Province, together claiming 93 lives and injuring 73 people, Guo said.
"The indifferent attitude toward safety and fire prevention held by a number of heads of some local departments, organizations and enterprises is mainly to blame for those fires," Guo said.
Meanwhile, lack of fire-fighting equipment in some public places, weakness of the public's awareness of the importance of preventing fires, and a serious shortage of professional firefighters were also listed by Guo as major causes of fire disasters.
According to Guo, China's fire-fighting departments at all levels across the country have been ordered to start a general check on hidden fire hazards in high-rise buildings, underground constructions, and storages of large amounts of explosive materials, combustibles and dangerous chemicals, as well as public places, including shopping centers, hotels, restaurants, hospitals and schools.
Evacuation passages, storing of explosive material and combustibles, installation and use of electrical appliances and fire-fighting equipment will be the focus of the nationwide check, Guo noted.
"Public places which have serious fire hazards and are not properly equipped for safe production will be ordered to stop operations immediately," said Guo.
He also urged firefighting departments to make great efforts to educate the public in fire safety and prevention, and organize more fire drills.
Statistics show that some 250,000 fire cases were reported in China in 2003, down 1.4 percent over the previous year. The death toll was 2,497, up 4.3 percent, and those injured numbered 3,098, down 9.3 percent. The immediate losses totalled 1.59 billion yuan (about 192 million US dollars), up 3.2 percent. |
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