Al Jazeera October 22,2007
At least 37 people have died in a fire that broke out at a shoe factory in southeast China, officials and state media said.
The fire at the Feida workshop, near the city of Putian in Fujian province, broke out at 9:50 pm (1350 GMT) on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency said.
"Initial investigations showed 56 workers were in the workshop at the time of the fire," Zhu Qing, provincial government spokesman, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
A hospital official said some of those injured in the fire were in a critical condition.
"It happened on the sixth floor of the building where workers work, eat and sleep," a township official, surnamed Fang, told AFP news agency.
"The workshop is on the first and second floor, while workers sleep above."
Unsafe workplace
Safety and law enforcement officials have launched an investigation to determine what caused the fire, which was extinguished an hour after it broke out, Xinhua said.
Chen Zongfei, the owner of the factory, and his wife Huang Shubin, its manager, had been detained by police, Xinhua reported.
Zhu said that the couple had ignored two government directives to improve safety standards at the workshop.
Workshops in Fujian are often staffed by migrant workers from around the country in conditions that are often poorly regulated.
Accidents occur regularly across the country due to neglect of safety standards.
Many companies use poorly-maintained equipment and ignore environmental standards.
In a separate incident, at least 16 people were killed and 15 injured on Sunday in an explosion at a fireworks factory in Chongqing in southwest China.
China is one of the world's most dangerous places to work, with 320 people dying each day in work-related accidents, the government has said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/00029F24-7BB0-4A6C-87DC-1BE111F5F10E. htm
This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm