A devastating fire at a footwear manufacturing facility in Jinjiang, a major southeastern Chinese industrial hub known as the country’s shoe capital, has left at least 28 people dead, according to official state media reports. The inferno broke out shortly before noon local time on Thursday at the Huiteng Footwear factory, located in Fujian Province, sending massive plumes of thick black smoke billowing into the sky above the multi-story building. Viral footage captured by witnesses and shared by state news agency Xinhua shows multiple people trapped on the factory’s roof, waiting for rescue as flames spread through the structure below.
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledged the blaze had resulted in ‘major casualties’ and issued a directive stating that all parties responsible for the incident must be held strictly accountable. Hundreds of emergency rescue personnel were quickly deployed to the scene, and first responders successfully evacuated more than 200 people from surrounding and adjacent structures to safety. As of the latest official updates, the total number of people injured in the fire remains unconfirmed.
Preliminary investigations into the cause of the blaze point to an origin on the factory’s ground floor, where large quantities of flammable materials used in shoe production were stored. In a swift preliminary action, authorities have detained multiple senior staff associated with the factory’s ownership and ordered the freezing of the company’s bank accounts as they work to untangle the circumstances of the disaster.
Jinjiang holds an outsize role in global footwear production: the city is estimated to manufacture roughly 20 percent of all athletic shoes sold worldwide, making it a key node in the global supply chain for sportswear. This latest industrial disaster comes nearly eight months after China launched a national campaign to improve fire safety across high-risk buildings. The nationwide safety push was initiated in November last year, after a catastrophic blaze tore through multiple residential high-rises in Hong Kong that killed 168 people, sparking widespread public outcry over fire safety standards.