Residential areas, restaurants to be inspected after fatal explosion

Gas supplies in all Beijing homes are to be checked for potential hazards following a deadly blast that killed six people on Monday.

Authorities agreed the move just hours after the explosion ripped through a two-story residential block in Chaoyang district at about 8:30 am. Although the incident is still under investigation, initial reports suggest it was caused by a gas leak.

Safety inspection teams will cover every residential complex in the coming weeks, focusing particularly on older buildings, as well as restaurants' kitchens and construction sites.

"The checks will mainly be concentrated on exposed pipelines," Wang Qingwen, a press officer at the municipal commission of city administration and environment, told METRO. "Pipelines underground are much less prone to damage."

Examinations in residential areas will be carried out by the relevant gas suppliers, while restaurants and construction sites will be inspected by urban management officers, better known as chengguan. Beijing Gas press officer Xu Chunfang said the company is devising a detailed plan of safety checks and will release more information this week.

The project was announced after an emergency teleconference on Monday afternoon between officials with the environment commission, the work safety administration and the municipal fire bureau.

"The most important thing is the safety of gas cooking appliances in homes and the standard of rubber hoses at connection points," said Wang, who assured that inspectors will offer advice to families that need to update unsafe cooking equipment.

More residents will be encouraged to install devices that warn of gas leaks, although "if it's made compulsory, there will be financial implications", he said, adding: "It's not been decided who will pay for the devices; the government, the gas companies or the residents."

Families who want to install gas leak detectors now have to pay suppliers roughly 100 yuan for the service. Staff at Beijing Gas told Mirror Evening News that the devices usually last for three years. However, due to Chinese cooking habits, they claimed the lifespan can often be reduced to one year.

Residents living close to the site of the deadly blast in Hepingli community gathered nearby on Tuesday to discuss their safety fears.

"Many buildings in this community, mostly those lower than four floors, are more than 50 years old. Although stable, the pipelines inside are too old to be used," said a resident who did not want to be identified. She said she hopes authorities will launch a thorough citywide inspection of all old buildings.

However, Li Zhiqiang, a section chief with Beijing housing commission's safety and facility management office, said the government has no plans for such a project. "It (Monday's blast) was just an accident that could have happened in any country, nothing to do with a problem in housing safety," he told METRO. "We will continue our routine management of old buildings."

According to fire bureau statistics, more than 2,900 blazeswere reported in the first quarter of this year, 37 of which were caused by gas leaks.

Residents who used to live in the collapsed building were transferred to a nearby hotel on Monday night. Discussions on the amount of compensation they will receive are ongoing, Beijing Times reported.