Xi voices work-safety worry after shoe factory fire kills 28

BEIJING: Chinese leader Xi Jinping voiced worries about repeated deadly workplace accidents after a blaze at a shoe factory killed 28 people.

The fire on Thursday happened at Fujian Huiteng Shoes Co in Quanzhou, a coastal city with a population of 7.7 million in Fujian, China Central Television reported. It added that two people died at the hospital and 26 others were later confirmed dead, while some 213 people were moved to safety.

The incident happened in a workshop where flammable materials were present, CCTV said. The company’s leaders have been detained, the state broadcaster said, and its accounts frozen.

Underscoring the Chinese leadership’s mounting concern about workplace safety issues, Xi said that “since the beginning of this year, multiple major production safety accidents have occurred,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported. “All regions and relevant departments must deeply learn from these lessons” and address problems, he said.

China’s premier, Li Qiang, said officials should “strictly prevent major and serious accidents,” Xinhua added.

Fujian Huiteng Shoes was founded in 2015 and supplies international brands including Fila SpA, Portuguese sneaker maker Beppi and the British brands Slazenger and Hi-Tec, according to the business information platform Qichacha.

While China’s workplaces have gotten safer in recent years, problems persist.

In May, the nation suffered its deadliest coal mine blast since 2009 when some 82 people died in the northern province of Shanxi – an incident that prompted Xi to call for stronger safety measures. Days later five people died in a mine collapse in Yunnan, in the southwest.

The same month, a blast at a fireworks factory in the central city of Changsha killed at least 37 people.