Flames tore through a shoe factory in China’s Fujian province, leaving at least 28 dead and sending hundreds of rescue workers into a race against time.
Dramatic footage released by Xinhua showed thick black smoke rising from the building and flames racing across the structure. In some of the images, people appeared to be trapped on the roof as firefighters worked below.
President Xi Jinping said the fire had caused “significant casualties,” a phrase that suggested the toll could have been even worse before officials confirmed the death count. He ordered an all-out rescue effort and a swift investigation into what went wrong.
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State broadcaster CCTV said 500 rescue workers were sent to the scene. Other reports said 183 firefighters and 35 fire engines were dispatched from nearby Quanzhou to help bring the blaze under control.
Jinjiang is often called China’s shoe capital, and that matters here. The city is built around footwear manufacturing, where flammable materials, tight production schedules and crowded factory floors can turn one spark into a disaster very quickly.
Preliminary findings suggested the fire began on the ground floor, and officials said shoe-making materials stored inside may have helped the flames spread fast. By late afternoon, open flames had largely been extinguished, but the damage was already severe.
The cause is still under investigation, and authorities have not yet given a full account of how many people were trapped or how the fire started. For now, the country is left with a familiar and painful question: how a workplace in one of its major industrial hubs could so quickly become a death trap.
