BEIJING: Shanxi province’s top authority has vowed to resolutely curb the occurrence of major accidents, asking county officials to devote themselves to the front lines of work safety management.
The pledge came in a statement issued after a high-profile meeting of the Shanxi provincial committee of the Communist Party of China, which was convened on Saturday following a deadly fire at a Yongju coal mining company building in Lyuliang city. The fire started at around 7 am on Thursday in a large shower room and spread to the second floor of the five-story building in Lishi district. The blaze left 26 dead and 38 injured.
According to local authorities, seven of the injured are in severe but not life-threatening condition, and an investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing.
Punitive measures, which in China can include arrest, detention and residential surveillance, have been taken against 13 individuals, including the actual controller and other executives of the company.
The statement demanded authorities across the major coal-producing province roll out more effective measures to prevent serious accidents from happening and make “all-out efforts to safeguard the safety of people’s lives and property”. In China, serious accidents usually refer to those that claim 10 to 29 lives, seriously injure 50 to 99 people, or cause economic losses of 50 million yuan ($6.9 million) to less than 100 million yuan.
Adhering to the principle that nothing is more precious than people’s lives, Shanxi will determine the cause of the fire and hold those responsible accountable as soon as possible, the statement said, adding that the province will also immediately launch a campaign focused on fire safety.
Heads of the Party committee and other government departments should use all available resources to help mitigate workplace accidents, it emphasized. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
