A fire that broke out in a shoe factory in East China has killed at least 37 people and left 19 injured, an official with the local government said yesterday.
Fifty-six workers were working at the Feida factory at the time when the blaze broke out at 9:50 pm on Sunday, Zhu Qing, spokesman of Fujian provincial government, said.
The factory, which mainly manufactures shoe uppers, is a six-storey facility in the Hushi Township of Xiuyu District in Putian, East China's Fujian Province.
"The fire, which spread over 520 square meters, was controlled and put out in about one and a half hours," Zhu told a news briefing yesterday.
The factory's manager, Huang Shubin and her husband Chen Zhongfei, both locals, were detained by police early yesterday, according to Zhu.
The factory has been operating since late 2003 when it was granted a license.
Authorities shut down operations a year into production because of "its failure to meet production safety standards", Zhu said.
The factory continued to not meet safe production standards after it relocated from a commercial tower to a privately-owned building in September 2006.
The first floor of the factory was used as a storeroom, the second and third floors as workshops, and the top three floors as a dining hall and dorms.
"Also, we ordered both Chen and Huang in May and September this year to improve the working conditions to ensure safety standards after they had moved the factory, but they failed to do so," Zhu said.
All the injured were being treated in hospitals, Zhu said, without providing details on their current conditions.
A working group formed by officials from State Council, Ministry of Public Security, State Administration of Work Safety and the All China Federation of Trade Unions were dispatched yesterday to Putian, to investigate the accident.
Source: China Daily
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