The toll is extremely heavy in China after a fire broke out in Changfeng Hospital in Beijing on Tuesday. At least 29 people have died and dozens more have been hospitalized. But what happened? Who are responsible for this tragedy? 20 minutes takes stock of the situation for you.
What happened ?
The alert about a fire starting at Changfeng Hospital, in the Fengtai district of Beijing, was given shortly before 1 p.m. (7 a.m. French time) on Tuesday. At least 29 people died in the fire, authorities announced on Wednesday the day after the tragedy. It is the deadliest disaster in the Chinese capital since 2002, when an Internet cafe fire killed 25 students. Among the victims are 16 women and 13 men, according to Li Zongrong, deputy mayor of Fengtai district. Of the 29 victims, 26 were patients, two were hospital workers and one was a relative of a patient, according to state television CCTV.
The disaster was extinguished half an hour later, while the emergency services evacuated 71 patients within two hours, according to the official newspaper Beijing Daily. The flames forced patients to escape through windows by hanging on sheets and to take refuge by perching on air conditioners on the facade, according to images posted on social networks and quickly censored in China.
Several families of patients said they had lost contact with loved ones, with the missing patients being mostly elderly people who have difficulty moving around, the report said on Wednesday. Chinese Youth Daily, an official journal. Municipal authorities said 39 people injured in the fire were still hospitalized Wednesday morning.
Who is being singled out?
Twelve people were arrested, including the director of the hospital and employees of the company in charge of renovation work in the building, municipal police announced on Wednesday. According to a preliminary investigation cited by state television CCTV, the fire was started by “sparks generated during internal renovation work”.
These sparks “ignited the volatile substances of the flammable paint on the site”, according to this investigation. On Wednesday morning, a heavy police presence was still visible around the establishment, trying to discourage groups of passers-by watching and filming with their phones.
What is Beijing’s reaction to this tragedy?
“The number one priority is to treat the injured,” said Yin Li, Communist Party secretary in Beijing, who visited the scene, according to Beijing Daily. He recommended “setting up a task force at the municipal level”, in particular to “quickly identify the cause of the accident and hold accountable those responsible, in accordance with the law”.
On the Chinese social network Weibo, Internet users however complained about the online censorship quickly applied around this drama. “So many people died. This is a major security incident and oddly not as popular as one celebrity insulting another,” one noted. “They are doing a good job of suppressing [cette information] among the most searched terms “on the social network, quipped another.
Is this an isolated event?
Unfortunately, fatal fires are quite common in China. The insufficiency of security standards and the corruption of those responsible for applying them are regularly singled out. But such fatal fires are rarer in Beijing.
In November 2022, 10 people were killed in the fire of a residential building in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang (northwest), triggering a movement of popular anger against the anti-Covid health restrictions, accused of having hampered the work of the emergency services. Also in November, 38 people died in a factory fire in Anyang (central), authorities accusing employees of mishandling.