Fire in northeastern China kills 17
A deadly fire in Changchun has once again shined a light on shoddy construction and fatal accidents that are all too common in China’s cities and infrastructure. But some government policies and new technologies from the private sector offer hope.
Flames engulfed a busy restaurant in northeastern China today, leaving 17 dead and three people injured.
The small diner in Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province and home to about 4.6 million people, caught fire during a lunchtime rush at 12:40 p.m. on Wednesday. Emergency responders were able to evacuate survivors and contain the blaze by 3 p.m., and the injured were sent to hospitals for treatment.
- Preliminary investigations suggest that the accident was caused by a leak from a tank of liquefied gas, state broadcaster CCTV reported per the South China Morning Post, but the investigation is ongoing and the cause has not yet been determined.
The fire has again drawn attention to a number of deadly accidents in populated areas in China, which are often blamed on shoddy design and construction of infrastructure, loose safety requirements, and lack of inspections and enforcement. The country’s rapid development in the past few decades has also led to the rise of densely packed urban spaces, which often pose unique challenges to Chinese firefighters and emergency responders.
- Earlier this month, a 42-floor skyscraper belonging to state-owned telecommunications company China Telecom caught fire in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, with a population of about 10 million, with no casualties reported as of yet.
- In June, one person was killed after a fire broke out at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co plant.
- Last year in July, a warehouse fire in Changchun resulted in at least 15 fatalities and at least 25 injuries.
- One month earlier, a martial arts school in northern Henan Province caught fire, killing 18 people, most of whom were children. The incident, which went viral on social media, sparked public outcry about fire safety and construction regulations.
The government is trying to minimize such accidents and improve the response to them.
- Beijing pledged to ”[deepen] the modernization of the system and capability of China’s emergency management” and to “support the development of firefighting and rescue equipment and materials” for the China Fire and Rescue (CFR) force in the National Emergency Management System Plan.
Meanwhile, new firefighting technologies are emerging. As Beijing continues to pour investments into the digital transformation of cities and transport hubs, companies are churning out new fire safety products that use artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and drones and robots.
- At the China Fire Expo last year, drones were “the rising stars of the fire protection industry” in the mainland China market, per the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. One model displayed at the expo can remain airborne without interruption and lift hoses to any building up to a height of 50 meters (164 feet) to help fight city fires.
- The fire brigade in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province, is reportedly using IoT to remotely monitor possible fire risks by using near field communication (NFC) chips, which can monitor temperature, electricity currents, and voltage in real time.
- Explosion-proof firefighting robots with water cannons are being produced by CITIC HIC Kaicheng Intelligence in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, to “prevent industrial accidents and ensure urban public safety,” state news Xinhua reported.
