Chinese official media said that a fire broke out at a shopping center in southwest China on Wednesday, killing sixteen people.
In the city of Zigong, Sichuan province, dramatic photographs revealed a massive column of black smoke erupting from the 14-story structure. There was also a group of folks gathered on a balcony.
Following the dispatch of about 300 emergency personnel and numerous vehicles from the local fire department to the incident, state television CCTV claimed that about thirty people were saved from the fire.
According to CCTV, which cited local authorities, preliminary investigations indicate that building activities was the source of the incident.
China’s Ministry of Emergency Management asked rescuers and local authorities to identify the fire’s origin as quickly as possible and to take precautions to guarantee better security going forward in a statement released on Thursday.
In China, where safety regulations are frequently poorly enforced, such incidents are not unusual.
Only a few days after another fire at a boarding school in the central Henan province claimed the lives of thirteen children, a mixed-use building in southeast China claimed the lives of at least 39 people in January.
