Fire safety inspection launched across county

Many safety inspection campaigns were launched across China on Wednesday to identify and eliminate potential fire risks in medical institutions and other places where crowds of people tend to congregate.

The campaigns followed a deadly fire on Tuesday at a private Beijing hospital that claimed 29 lives. The fire was believed to have originated from welding sparks during renovation work in one of the hospital's buildings, authorities in the capital said on Wednesday.

In Jingzhou, Hubei province, teams of firefighters carried out inspections on Wednesday night at local medical institutions. They checked the operation and maintenance of fire safety facilities.

Of the 31 medical institutions inspected, more than 100 violations of fire safety rules were discovered. Seventy-six places with fire risks were ordered to make corrections, according to a firefighting team in Jingzhou.

In Fuyang, Anhui province, an urgent notice was released by authorities on Wednesday requiring related government departments to carry out thorough checks on places where people congregate, such as inpatient buildings at hospitals, accommodations for the elderly and college dormitories.

The checks were focused on multiple fire risks, including the use of combustible materials in decoration, the storage of flammable and explosive materials and blocked escape routes.

The notice also required related departments to enhance the promotion of fire safety knowledge to the public, with the aim of improving the ability to escape or to perform self-rescue in case of an accident.

Mianyang, Sichuan province, dispatched 15 inspection teams on Tuesday night to check 34 local medical institutions. They found more than 200 fire risks or related illegal circumstances and have called for rectification of 153 of those.

Other places that have carried out similar fire safety reviews include Jinzhou, Liaoning province; Chengdu, Sichuan province; and Dongguan, Guangdong province.