Lax Safety Blamed in China Poultry-Plant Fire
By JAMES T. AREDDY
SHANGHAI—Chinese authorities on Thursday blamed basic safety lapses for the deaths this week of 120 poultry workers in one of the nation's deadliest fires in recent years.Enlarge Image
Reuters
Health officers sterilized a dump site with lime powder on Wednesday, near the site of the fire.
The four-year-old plant was built with combustible materials, lacked extinguishers and had too few escape routes, most of which were locked, according to government statements that largely confirm survivor accounts reported immediately after the disaster.
Workers reported difficulty escaping the six-hour inferno, sparked around dawn Monday and possibly fueled by ammonia used in equipment cooling. They said the plant went dark inside as smoke billowed around. On Thursday, the government confirmed that exits were locked and no evacuation instructions were ever provided to the 300 or so who worked there.
The plant's safety procedures were "a total mess," Yang Dongliang, director of a body directly under the State Council,the State Administration of Work Safety, said Thursday. In comments carried by the official Xinhua news agency, he said unnamed government authorities share fault.
"As the main body of work-safety enforcement, the company bears ultimate responsibility for the accident, while the government is also responsible for its management and supervision duties," said Mr. Yang.
The structure's materials and layout created "an enormous fire hazard," Gao Guangbin, the top Communist Party official in Changchun, the nearest big city to the plant which was located in the city of Dehui in Jilin Province, said in a government statement this week.
On Thursday, Changchun Mayor Jiang Zhiying accepted a level of blame to the investigation team being led by the central government, according to a statement from the government there, and pledged cooperation with the investigation.
For many in China, the accident was the latest to highlight widespread risks in the country's workplaces, on its roads and in other areas of daily life. Before he embarked on a multination tour that will bring him to the U.S., Chinese President Xi Jinping last week pledged to address the country's "deep-rooted" safety problems. He kicked off a campaign, according to Xinhua, aimed at correcting safety shortfalls "in a systematic, integrated and lawful manner to ensure people's livelihoods, social order and the country's long-term stability."
After Monday's chicken-plant fire, authorities also worked to calm nerves. Counselors were dispatched to meet with each affected family. But authorities also warned they wouldn't tolerate "mass incidents," a reference to protests.
Information about victims has been slow to emerge. One Internet user posted what he said was a list of those admitted to several hospitals in Changchun and Dehui. Hospital workers contacted by telephone said they weren't authorized to speak.
Photos of the Baoyuanfeng Poultry plant show it charred to its steel frame.
Authorities froze Baoyuanfeng Poultry's bank account and detained its chairman, Jia Yushan, and its general manager, Zhang Yushen, as part of the criminal investigation, Xinhua said.
—Fanfan Wang in Shanghai contributed to this article.
吉林失火禽類加工廠曾是模範企業
黃安偉 2013年06月05日
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
北京——中國東北一家禽肉加工廠的大火及氨氣泄露已致使至少120人死亡，這家工廠此前曾得到政府官員的表揚和支持，被評為模範企業，這引發人們對政府官員是否進行過徹底全面的檢查產生疑問。
可能是因為保存肉製品的冷庫氨氣泄露引起了周一的爆炸，造成了被國家媒體稱為多年來最嚴重的一次工作場所火災。而官方此前似乎未曾發現或公開過任何關於工廠氨氣儲存或其他安全隱患的問題。
吉林寶源豐禽業有限公司位於吉林省德惠市，在過去幾年中德惠市政府網站上發表過多篇讚揚該公司的文章。
據德惠市宣傳部官員在市政府網站上發佈的政務動態
稱，2010年10月，德惠市紀檢委書記曾到這家工廠了解企業情況。報道稱，紀檢委書記趙文波稱這家工廠「正在逐步成長壯大為全國知名企業，企業的生產發
展形勢令人振奮。」幾年來，德惠市一直宣傳自己是商品農業、動物飼料和食品加工中心。
同年，德惠市政府網站發佈的另一條消息稱，「通過先進的管理理念和經營模式，使公司（寶源豐——譯註）快速步入健康發展的軌道。」該消息稱，公司獲得了吉林省「百強農產品加工企業」之一，長春市「農業產業化重點龍頭企業」稱號，2011年該公司再次贏得這一稱號。
這些評價表明，官方沒有發現或者是忽視了導致這次災難的安全隱患。
中國國家媒體周二援引熟悉該公司的人的話說，公司的安全措施十分薄弱，幾乎不存在。周一的大火造成的死亡人數之多，足以與中國臭名昭著的危險採礦業中所發生的一些更駭人的礦難相提並論。
雖然官員迴避了採訪要求，但有關該工廠工作環境的一些細節
在國家媒體周二的報道中出現。新華社一則消息稱，長春市官員曾在一次會議上給出結論，這家工廠的工作環境過於擁擠，火災逃生通道和程序很差，檢查不達標。
新華社的報道稱，該工廠大部分是用非耐火材料建成，因此「發生火災風險很高。」
周二晚吉林政府微博發佈消息確認死亡人數已達120人。
新華社周二下午發佈的消息稱，火災現場的醫療人員發現導致死亡的主要原因是氨氣中毒，他們發現很多工人呼吸道腫大。目擊者稱，前一天他們聽到該工廠傳出一次或者更多次爆炸聲。國家媒體報道稱，氨氣泄露引發了最初的爆炸，隨後導致更多氨氣泄露出來。
這次事故如此嚴重，以至於中國最高層領導人已介入其處理。新華社消息稱，李克強總理在國務院應急指揮中心與吉林省官員見面。此前正在國外訪問的國家主席及共產黨總書記習近平要求要進行調查。新華社報道稱，77名受傷者正在長春接受治療。
一些倖存者的敘述在網上出現，他們描繪了一幅從被大火吞噬的擁擠房間和走廊逃生的瘋狂場面。據一條新華社報道稱，幸運逃生的王秀娟回憶：「在通道里大家都摔倒了，你壓我我壓你的，亂成一片，全是爬出來的，強（撐着）爬出來的。」
大眾的互聯網門戶網站騰訊網發佈網友通過微博對兩名倖存者的採訪。一名叫做管志國的人稱，工人們未曾得到過有關職業危險的提醒，比如氨氣的危險。
管志國說，「痛恨，不知恨誰。大家不知道，我跑出來的時候，看到幾個女工人在一個死門的門口，撕心裂肺的叫，叫聲特別慘，持續10分鐘左右。火大，我不能靠前。現在回想起來，特揪心，讓我忘不了，我救不了她們。」
另一名倖存者柴金鳳稱，她曾從老工人那裡聽說，廠家把一些門鎖上了，為了防止工人偷東西。她說：「出口少容易管理。」
一些倖存者在網上消息中稱，火災發生時工廠里有300到400名工人。23歲的侯健告訴《經濟觀察》報稱，他在冷庫區工作，那天和岳父一起從冷庫大門逃出。與這篇文章一起發佈的事故現場草圖顯示，很多人試圖從工廠加工車間和女更衣室方向逃生。
路透社消息稱，一些遇害者的親戚和朋友周二為尋求公正走上街頭抗議，警察很快就遍布這一地區。抗議活動只持續了一個小時。
官方沒有發佈調查的細節或誰可能會被追究責任。《21世紀經濟報道》消息稱，該公司的法人代表是賈玉山，該公司成立於2009年9月，公司資本總額為6200萬人民幣，約合1000萬美元。
寶源豐禽業有限公司今年4月份在網上的一則招聘信息稱，公
司2009年銷售額為1億元，2010年為2.1億元，2011年為3.7億元。這則招聘信息稱，該公司正在招聘200名加工車間工人，每月工資最低
2000元，最高3700元。申請者年齡為18-45歲之間，初中文化程度。
招聘信息還列出招聘製冷工、司機、會計以及辦公人員，這些
職位的工資沒有車間工人的高。德惠市網站消息稱，該公司新引入了兩條自動屠宰和加工線，每天可處理10萬隻雞，或每年生產肉雞產品6.7萬噸，銷往全國各
地。該公司不出口。這則消息稱，該工廠在投產的第一年就為1500家養雞場帶來了2300萬元的收入，相當於創造了3000個就業崗位。
黃安偉(Edward Wong)是《紐約時報》駐京記者。Mia Li和黃淑琳(Sue-Lin Wong)對本文有研究貢獻。翻譯：張亮亮
Chinese Poultry Factory Was Considered a Model
June 05, 2013
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Relatives of victims left the scene of the deadly fire.
BEIJING — The company operating the poultry processing factory in northeast China where a fire
and ammonia gas poisoning killed at least 120 people had been praised
and supported by government officials as a model enterprise, raising
questions of whether they had done thorough and aggressive inspections.
A leak of ammonia gas used
for preservation of meat in cold storage might have led to the explosion
on Monday, which resulted in what state news media called the worst
workplace fire in many years. Any problem in ammonia storage or other
workplace conditions did not appear to have been spotted or publicized
by officials.
- 檢視大圖
Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesScores of people were killed in the fire. - 檢視大圖
CHINATOPIX, via Associated PressResidents waited near the plant during rescue efforts. - 檢視大圖
CHINATOPIX, via Associated PressMedical staff were called to the factory after the fire. - 檢視大圖
Color China Photo, via Associated PressFirefighters removed remains from the poultry processing plant fire.
Homages to the company,
Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry, appeared in postings over the last several
years on the Web site of the government of Dehui, the municipality in
northeast China’s Jilin Province where the factory is located.
In October 2010, the head
of the local anti-corruption body of the Communist Party visited the
company to research workplace conditions, according to a statement from
Dehui propaganda officials posted on the municipal Web site. The
official, Zhao Wenbo, found the company’s “progress into becoming a
nationally known enterprise and the growth of its production inspiring,”
the post said. For years, Dehui has been promoting itself as a center
of commercial agriculture, animal feed production and food processing.
A different post from the
same year on the Dehui site asserted that “through an advanced
management concept and business model, the company quickly entered into
healthy development.” It said the Jilin provincial government had called
the company one of the “top 100 agricultural processing companies,”
while the provincial capital of Changchun had labeled it a “leading
enterprise” in agricultural industrialization, a title that it also held
in 2011.
Those assessments suggested that officials had missed or ignored conditions that led to the disaster.
People familiar with the
factory were cited by Chinese state news media on Tuesday as saying that
safety measures were poor or nonexistent. The death toll rivaled some
of the more horrendous accidents in China’s notoriously unsafe mining
industry.
Officials have avoided
granting interviews, but some details began to emerge in official media
reports on Tuesday of the conditions of the factory. A report by Xinhua,
the state news agency, said that Changchun officials had concluded at a
meeting that working conditions were too crowded, fire escape routes
and procedures were poor, and inspections substandard. Much of the
factory had been built from flammable materials, so “the risk of fire
was very large,” Xinhua reported.
The Jilin government said on its microblog Tuesday night that the confirmed death toll had reached 120.
A report on Tuesday
afternoon by Xinhua said medical workers at the site had found a main
cause of death was ammonia poisoning -- many of the workers had been
found with swollen respiratory tracts. Witnesses had said the previous
day they had heard one or more explosions. A leak of ammonia caused the
initial explosion, and then more gas leaked, according to state media
reports.
The accident was so large
that China’s top leaders intervened. Xinhua said Prime Minister Li
Keqiang met with provincial officials at the emergency command center of
the State Council, China’s cabinet. Earlier, Xi Jinping, the party
chief and state president, had called for an investigation while he was
traveling abroad. Xinhua reported that 77 people were being treated in
Changchun for injuries.
A handful of survivors’
accounts emerged on the Internet, painting a picture of mad attempts to
escape an inferno consuming a warren of rooms and hallways. “Everyone
was falling over in the corridors,” said Wang Xiujuan, according to a
Xinhua report. “You tread on me, I tread on you,, it was very chaotic.
Everyone was crawling out, using all their might to crawl out.”
Tencent, a popular Internet
portal, published interviews that two survivors had done via microblogs
with Internet users. One man, Guan Zhiguo, said the workers had not
been warned about workplace hazards, including the ammonia.
“I am filled with hatred,
but I don’t know towards what,” Mr. Guan said. “When I was running out, I
saw a few women workers stuck behind a locked door. They were screaming
their lungs out. It sounded so gruesome. The screaming lasted for about
10 minutes. The fire was too big for me to get close. Now thinking
back, my heart hurts for them.”
Chai Jinfeng, another
survivor, said she had been told by veteran workers that the factory
kept several doors locked in order to prevent workers from stealing.
“The less doors, the easier it is to patrol,” she said.
Several survivors said in
online reports that 300 to 400 workers were in the factory when the fire
broke out. Hou Jian, 23, told Economic Observer that he worked in the
cold storage area and escaped out the door there, along with his
father-in-law. A diagram of the factory accompanying the article showed
that many others tried to scramble out the processing area on the
factory floor and the women’s changing room.
Some relatives and friends
of victims took to the streets of Dehui on Tuesday to demand justice,
prompting the police to quickly fan out around the area, according to
Reuters. The protest lasted one hour.
Officials have not released
details of the investigation or who might be under scrutiny. The 21st
Century Business Herald reported that the company’s legal representative
was Jia Yushan, and that the company was founded in September 2009. Its
net worth was 62 million renminbi, or more than $10 million. .
A job advertisement from
Baoyuanfeng posted online in April said the company had $14.7 million in
sales in 2009, $31.4 million in 2010 and $58.7 million in 2011. The ad
said the company was hiring 200 processing workers and offered a monthly
salary range of $320 to $600. Applicants had to be age 18 to 45 and
have a junior high school education.
It also listed openings for
refrigeration work, drivers, accountants and office workers, which did
not pay as much. A posting on the Dehui Web site said the company was
adding two automatic slaughtering and processing lines that could handle
100,000 chickens a day, or 67,000 tons annually, for distribution
nationwide. The company did not export. The post said that over the
first year, the plant had generated $3.4 million in income for 1,500
chicken farms, supporting the equivalent of 3,000 jobs.
Mia Li and Sue-Lin Wong contributed research.
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