A fire at a crowded shopping mall killed at least 53 people Sunday in China’s northeast, while 39 died in a blaze in a temple in the southeast, state media said. The fires added to a string of deadly accidents despite government vows to improve safety.
Fires, coal mine accidents and other disasters blamed on shoddy construction, indifference to safety rules and other negligence occur frequently in China, killing scores of people at a time.
President Hu Jintao and other officials have vowed to make safety for ordinary Chinese a priority. But repeated crackdowns and threats to punish negligent officials appear to be having little effect. The shopping center fire broke out at about 11:20 a.m. on the second floor of the five-story Zhongbai Building in Jilin, a city about 590 miles northeast of Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It said the blaze apparently began in a storeroom next to a boiler room.
About 70 people also were injured, Xinhua said.
The temple fire broke out at about 2:15 p.m. in Wufeng, a village in Zhejiang province, Xinhua said. It said firefighters put out the blaze about 30 minutes later. The cause was under investigation.
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Compiled from RedEye news services and edited by Lara Weber (lweber@tribune.com) and Chris Courtney (cdcourtney@tribune.com)
