Global Courant 2023-04-18 22:40:07
At least 21 people have died after a fire broke out at a hospital in Beijing on Tuesday, forcing trapped patients to cram against windows awaiting rescue, while at least one jumped to a roof below to escape the flames and smoke. The fire turned out to be the deadliest in the Chinese capital in the past two decades.
It broke out just before 1 p.m. at a hospital building of Changfeng Hospital in the south of the city, and firefighters largely extinguished the flames in less than 40 minutes, the brief official said. report issued by the Beijing Daily, the city’s official newspaper. Dozens of patients were evacuated, but by early evening 21 people had died, apparently from the flames and dense smoke.
The death toll could rise, and the official report did not say whether bodies could still be left in the building. The toll already surpassed a 2017 fire in Beijing’s Daxing district that killed 19 people in a cramped apartment building housing migrant workers. In 2002, a fire at an internet cafe in the city killed 25 people.
The latest disaster is a blow to the Chinese capital, which has returned to normal after nearly three years of heavy pandemic controls were lifted, giving way last year to a sometimes deadly wave of Covid infections. Official Chinese media reported on the blaze late in the evening, many hours after it was extinguished, clearly reflecting the authorities’ sensitivity to public anger at the grim news.
Yin Li, the Communist Party secretary for Beijing, visited the scene of the fire and said authorities would prosecute those found guilty, the Beijing Daily reported.
“This fire is heartbreaking and the lessons are extremely profound,” said Mr. Yin, who overtakes the mayor as party secretary. “This is a warning bell for us, reminding us that there can’t be the slightest slack in work safety.”
In November, a fire in an apartment in Urumqi, the capital of western China’s Xinjiang region, killed 10 people and sparked protests across China, with many blaming the deaths on pandemic restrictions that residents and firefighters obstructed.
On Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo, residents shared photos and snippets of footage showing the Beijing fire engulfing much of the building, leaving many with no time or opportunity to make a quick escape.
Smoke billowed from the windows, as some inside cried for help leaning out of windows. Other footage showed a man climbing out of a window, putting down some blankets and falling onto a nearby roof. a photo showed the white tiled exterior of the hospital building badly charred by the flames and smoke.
Posts sharing the images on social media platforms often disappeared soon after they were released. The Chinese government is adept at quickly censoring news in an effort to quell public anger and questions about disasters. Some on social media asked why it took so long for the Beijing government to release the news about the fire.
“Even if this had not happened in the capital, the public should not have a basic right to know about a fire disaster that killed 21 people,” a comment posted on WeChat, a Chinese social media service.
Zixu Wang contributed reporting from Hong Kong.
