Beijing has launched a nationwide fire safety drive following a deadly inferno in Hong Kong. The Work Safety Committee of the State Council issued a notice vowing to identify and rectify fire risks in high-rise buildings. The campaign targets unsafe practices and lax management.
The Work Safety Committee of the State Council, China's cabinet, announced the sweeping drive in a notice on Saturday, according to state media. The notice pledged to “identify and rectify” fire risks across high-rise residential and public-use buildings, from tower blocks to offices, hospitals and shopping complexes, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The campaign specifically targets buildings undergoing exterior wall renovations or interior refurbishments, with four priority areas – unsafe construction practices, the use of flammable materials, malfunctioning fire protection systems and lax daily safety management. The goal of the drive, the notice said, was “to comprehensively strengthen fire safety management in high‑rise buildings and effectively safeguard people’s lives and property”.
These failures appeared to have turned the inferno in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district into one of the world’s worst residential building disasters since 1980 and the city’s deadliest in eight decades. Around 150 people are still unaccounted for as Hong Kong observes three days of mourning.
The notice vows to ‘identify and rectify’ fire risks across public and private facilities, with a focus on unsafe practices and lax management.