Poultry processing fire in China kills at least 119

The fire and a subsequent stampede is thought to have caused the deaths at the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company in Dehui City, 250 miles northeast of Bejing this week (June 3).

Survivors told of explosions before the blaze and a stampede of workers towards the exits, some of which were claimed to be locked.

Some reports attributed the fire to an electrical fault, while other sources referred to an ammonia leak.

‘A leak of ammonia’​

The website of the local fire department attributed the blasts to a leak of ammonia. The gas was kept under pressure as part of the cooling system in meat processing plants, it said.

The state broadcaster CCTV quoted an un-named worker who said the blaze might have started in a locker room during a change of shifts at the plant.

About 100 workers had managed to escape from the plant, according to Xinhua. It reported that the “complicated interior structure”​ of the building and narrow exits had made both escape and rescue efforts more difficult.

More than 300 people were said to be working at the plant when the fire broke out at about 6am local time.

Rescue services were said to be recovering bodies from the scene on Monday afternoon.

Recovering bodies​

Reuters news agency reported that the provincial government had sent more than 500 firefighters and 270 doctors and nurses to the scene of the fire. Up to 3,000 local residents had been evacuated as a precautionary measure, it added.

Some sources said the industrial blaze was the worst in living memory. Commentators have compared it to the fire in 2000 at a dance hall in Luoyang, central eastern China, when 309 people died.

While central government had created a raft of regulations in recent years designed to protect the safety of workers, enforcement has proved somewhat variable.

Also, fears about security sometimes prompted factory managers to lock exits in a bid to battle theft.

Jason Yan, technical director of the US Beijing-based Grains Council, told Associated Press that said safety considerations in China usually took second place to features designed to maximise production and energy efficiency.

“I'm sure they consider some aspects of safety design. However, I think safety, to me, is not the first priority in their design plan,”​ said Yan.

The plant produced 67,000t of processed chicken a year and employed about 1,200 people.