Fireworks blamed for fatal warehouse blast in NE China
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A warehouse blast caused by holiday fireworks killed two people and injured four others Tuesday in Baicheng, Jilin Province, officials said.
The morning blast was the latest incident, including thousands of fires, linked to fireworks people across the country used to ring in Spring Festival.
The blast in Jilin occurred at 11:06 am and triggered the explosions, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
A witness surnamed Li told Xinhua that the fire was under control after two hours and the explosion made a tremendous noise. The blast occurred 80 kilometers away from the city proper of Baicheng.
Meanwhile, police took two people into custody Tuesday in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, where they were investigating how fireworks started a blaze that gutted a five-star hotel on Thursday.
During that fire, 50 people were evacuated and no casualties were reported. The fireworks apparently lit up the external wall of the buildings.
The suspects, a pair surnamed Li and Feng, allegedly lit up fireworks outside the Wanxin building, Xinhua reported. Police said they were guests at the hotel and set them off in the parking lot outside Tower B in the Dynasty Wanxin complex, just 10.8 meters from the building, Wang Qingge, a spokesman for the Shenyang Bureau of Public Security, said Tuesday. Forty people died in more than 118,000 cases of fire reported across the country from Wednesday to Tuesday, as Chinese revelers celebrated the Lunar New Year holiday with fireworks, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Ministry of Public Security.
In addition to causing fires, fireworks were blamed for severe air pollution and tons of garbage on the street. On Friday, 27 out of the 86 cities being monitored showed signs of air polluted, according the figures from the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Sulfur dioxide and particulate matter emitted from fireworks were the major pollutants.
