Fires Kill 2,700 Chinese in 1999

3/2/00 

BEIJING (March 2, 2000) XINHUA - Fires killed more than 2,700 people while causing direct economic loss of about 1.4 billion yuan (about 169 million U.S. dollars) in China last year (1999), becoming the top threat to fast-growing cities throughout the country.

Fire-fighting specialists today warned that fires could be more catastrophic than traffic accidents, even though the death toll from fires is lower.

"Lots of people underestimate the serious consequences of a fire, such as the destruction of infrastructure, loss of property, and negative impacts on the whole economic structure," Fan Weicheng, a professor from the Chinese University of Science and Technology, said at a symposium on city safety in the 21st century.

Statistics show that fires were on the rise in recent years. About 180, 000 fires were reported in the country last year, an increase of 40 percent over 1998.

Prof. Fan blamed the lack of fire-fighting equipment and poor management of fire fighting system in buildings as the leading cause of frequent fires, such as a blaze which burned down a large furniture mall in Beijing in 1998. In that case, firefighters were unable to get equipment and water at the scene.

Another specialist worried that urban modernization has also brought more and more hidden dangers. "We have increasing pressures on preventing fires as the city develops power and gas supply projects, telecommunications and public traffic," said senior engineer Wu Qihong from the Chinese Association for Fire Prevention and Control.

The nation has invested 30 million yuan to build a national laboratory to study fire prevention, Wu said.

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