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Scores Die in Fire at Chinese Poultry Plant Scores Die in Fire at Chinese Poultry Plant
(about 3 hours later)
HONG KONG — Explosions and fire tore through parts of a poultry plant in northeast China on Monday, killing at least 61 people. Dozens of injured workers were taken to the hospital and area residents fled. HONG KONG — Explosions and fire tore through parts of a poultry plant in northeast China on Monday, killing at least 119 people, in one of the country’s worst factory accidents in recent years.
Residents near the Baoyuanfeng Poultry Plant in Jilin Province heard three blasts at about 6 a.m. Parts of the plant were engulfed in flames, but it was unclear whether the fire spread before or after the explosions, Chinese television reported. The Jilin provincial government said 61 people were confirmed dead as of about midday, according to the television report. Residents near the factory, the Baoyuanfeng Poultry Plant, in Jilin Province heard blasts at about 6 a.m. Parts of the plant were engulfed in flames but it was unclear whether the fire broke out before or after the explosions, Chinese television reported. The Jilin Province government said on its microblog news site that 113 people were confirmed dead.
Police officers and officials at the plant are investigating the cause of the accident, said the report, which showed the charred remains of a shed attached to a larger building, which also burned. The police evacuated residents near the plant, fearing more explosions from gas stored there, the China News Service reported. “When I woke up, there was smoke rising in the air and sirens and you knew straight away that it was bad news,” Dong Wenjun, a metal trader in the town of Mishazi, where the plant is, said in a telephone interview. “But I didn’t expect it to be this bad. They were all local people, I think.”
China’s food processing industry has grown rapidly in recent years to feed an increasingly prosperous and urbanized population, and the poultry plant appeared to be one example of that growth. The police and officials at the plant are investigating the cause of the accident, said the television report. It showed the charred remains of a shed attached to a larger building, which also burned. The police evacuated residents near the plant, fearing more explosions from gas stored there, the China News Service reported. Dozens of factory workers were taken to the hospital, mostly for breathing difficulties from inhaling toxic gases, the report said.
Started in 2009, the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company, which owns the plant, has more than 1,200 employees and raises, slaughters and processes chickens, the China News Service said. The company can produce 67,000 tons of chicken products every year, the Agriculture Ministry said on its Web site in 2010. An employee of the plant, Guo Yan, said she heard a boom and then people shouting that there was a fire, Xinhua, the state-run news agency, reported. One of the fire exits was blocked and she had to escape through another exit, she told Xinhua. “People were all rushing, pressing and crushing each other,” said Ms. Guo. “I fell over and had to crawl forward using all my might.”
China’s food-processing industry has grown rapidly in recent years to feed an increasingly prosperous and urbanized population and the poultry plant appeared to be one beneficiary of that growth. Dehui City, which administers the area that includes the poultry plant, has promoted itself as a base for commercial agriculture, animal feed and food processing. By 2011, Dehui’s poultry industry could produce 250 million broiler chickens a year and slaughter 150 million of them, according to information on the Jilin government’s Web site.
Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry, which owns the Mishazi plant, was started in 2009 and has more than 1,200 employees, the China News Service said. The company, which raises and slaughters poultry, can produce 67,000 tons of chicken products every year, the Agriculture Ministry said on its Web site in 2010.
China’s rapid economic expansion has brought with it factories and mines troubled by work hazards, and frequent industrial accidents have drawn criticism that officials put economic growth before safety. The government does not issue detailed figures for industrial accidents but has said that in 2011 the number of people killed in mines, factories and other work sites fell to fewer than 10,000.China’s rapid economic expansion has brought with it factories and mines troubled by work hazards, and frequent industrial accidents have drawn criticism that officials put economic growth before safety. The government does not issue detailed figures for industrial accidents but has said that in 2011 the number of people killed in mines, factories and other work sites fell to fewer than 10,000.
China’s coal mines are notoriously unsafe. But Geoffrey Crothall, the communications director for China Labour Bulletin, an advocacy group based in Hong Kong, said he could not recall the last time there was a disaster of this magnitude in a factory or production plant. In 1993, a fire in a toy factory in far southern China killed 87 workers, he said. In late 2000, a fire at a shopping center in Luoyang in Henan Province in central China killed 309 people. Preliminary reports from the latest accident suggested that a fire escape exit may have been blocked or ineffective, he said.
“Clearly, the lack of proper fire escapes is a longstanding problem in many Chinese workplaces,” said Mr. Crothall. He noted that it was too early to draw firm conclusions about the latest disaster. “But many factories are locked for what the owners or managers consider to be security reasons and fire exits are not properly maintained or given the priority they should be.”
Some residents contacted by telephone said they had not heard of any safety problems at the poultry plant. “They are a pretty big, famous company in these parts and employ a lot of people,” said Sun Wei, a delivery worker in the area.

Sue-Lin Wong contributed research from Beijing.

Sue-Lin Wong contributed research from Beijing.