A devastating fire that swept through a commercial shoe factory in Jinjiang, Fujian Province – China’s renowned national shoe manufacturing capital and a global athletic footwear production hub – has claimed at least 28 lives, according to official Chinese state media, with emergency response teams deploying more than 500 personnel to bring the blaze under control.
The inferno broke out around noon local time (0400 GMT) at the Huiteng Shoes facility, and in the immediate hours after ignition, local authorities held grave concerns that additional people remained trapped inside the multi-story structure. State-run China Central Television (CCTV) released on-site footage showing dozens of fire crews dousing the exterior and interior of the large white building with high-pressure hoses, as thick plumes of acrid black smoke poured out of shattered windows. The footage also captured dozens of workers who had fled to upper floor windows and the building’s roof to wait for rescue, while flames raged uncontrolled through the lower levels of the facility.
Jinjiang Fire Department Chief Du Zhenzhou told state reporters that access to upper levels for rescue teams was severely hampered by large stockpiles of shoe manufacturing materials that had blocked stairwells and emergency exits. He added that flammable adhesives and other industrial raw materials used in footwear production acted as accelerants, allowing the fire to spread far more rapidly than emergency responders could initially contain.
Shortly after the blaze was contained, China’s state news agency Xinhua confirmed a preliminary death toll of 28, in remarks following an official statement from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who noted the incident had resulted in “heavy human losses”. President Xi also called for a full and rapid investigation into the cause of the disaster, and mandated that all parties found responsible for the safety failure must face strict legal accountability. Per Xinhua’s reporting, the factory’s owner and multiple other senior staff have already been taken into custody by authorities, and all corporate accounts held by Huiteng Shoes have been frozen pending the investigation.
Emergency management officials confirmed that the fire has been fully extinguished, and have ordered response teams to continue all-out search operations for any remaining trapped people, as well as prioritize medical treatment for injured survivors. At the time of the fire outbreak, 239 people – 237 factory workers and two delivery personnel – were on-site at the facility, and 213 were successfully evacuated, per CCTV data. Official reports have noted that multiple people remain out of contact, and authorities have not yet released a full accounting of how the evacuation numbers align with the confirmed death toll.
In his official statement, President Xi pointed out that this incident marks the latest in a string of major industrial safety accidents across China so far this year. He called on all regional governments and national regulatory departments to draw profound safety lessons from this and previous disasters, and to implement rigorous, effective workplace safety protocols across all high-risk industrial sectors nationwide.
This fire comes on the heels of a series of deadly fire-related incidents across China that have already spurred new regulatory action. In November, following a massive high-rise residential fire in Hong Kong that killed 168 people, Chinese authorities launched a national campaign to inspect and eliminate fire hazards in all tall residential and commercial buildings. Just one month after that campaign launched, a residential building fire in Guangdong Province, just south of Fujian, killed 12 people. Earlier this year, a blast at a central Chinese fireworks factory left 37 people dead, making it one of the deadliest industrial accidents the country has seen in recent years.