13 arrested over deadly inferno at high-rise
By Xu Fang and Zha Minjie |
November 27, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
The arrest of 13 suspects said to bear prime responsibility for the Shanghai high-rise inferno on November 15 was approved by the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate Prosecutors' Office yesterday.
The blaze in the city's Jing'an District claimed 58 lives and put 71 people in hospital.
The suspects, including Dong Fang, former legal representative and general manager of Jing'an Construction Group, and Huang Peixin, legal representative and general manager of Shanghai Jiayi Building Decoration Engineering Co, were charged with being responsible for a serious accident.
Jing'an Construction Group was the general contractor for the renovation of the high-rise block and Jiayi, a subsidiary of Jing'an Construction, was a subcontractor and main operator on site.
Other suspects include employees from the project's supervising party, the company that set up the scaffolding and unlicensed welders.
Stray sparks from welding tools are believed to have started the blaze at the apartment building on Jiaozhou Road which was being clad with insulating material. Flames spread quickly, engulfing the high-rise.
Lax safety supervision and mistakes by welders were to blame for the tragedy, according to a state investigation team.
Meanwhile, clean-up work started yesterday on the two high-rises next to the 28-floor building that caught fire to ensure hundreds of evacuated households can move back as soon as possible.
More than 50 workers will remove flammable material from the exterior of the buildings and safety checks will be carried out.
The manager in charge of the work, Pan Jianguo, who has banned smoking on site, said residents should be able to return by December 20.
More than 300 households who lived in the neighboring two buildings are now staying in 17 hotels or inns together with those who escaped from the blazing building.
When the accident happened, all the three buildings were being covered by polyurethane foam, a flammable material used for insulation.
The flammable material was blamed for the quick spread of the fire which was first ignited by sparks from welding.
The inferno lasted for more than four hours before firefighters put it under control.
Pan said the foam was firmly stuck to the buildings' surface and was "hard to remove."
The material was being sprayed onto the facade before being covered with concrete. The work had been almost half completed. Scaffolding had been set up to 48 meters high and the insulation layers had been applied to a height of 37.8 meters, workers said.
The buildings are about 85 meters high.
Zhou Xiaoli, an engineer with the clean-up project, said each floor was to be equipped with fire extinguishers.
So far no compensation plan has been announced for those living in the two neighboring buildings.
Families who lost relatives in the inferno are to get compensation of 960,000 yuan (US$144,384) for each victim.
Residents in the damaged building will also get compensation for their apartments either in cash or another apartment according to market prices, city officials said.
The blaze in the city's Jing'an District claimed 58 lives and put 71 people in hospital.
The suspects, including Dong Fang, former legal representative and general manager of Jing'an Construction Group, and Huang Peixin, legal representative and general manager of Shanghai Jiayi Building Decoration Engineering Co, were charged with being responsible for a serious accident.
Jing'an Construction Group was the general contractor for the renovation of the high-rise block and Jiayi, a subsidiary of Jing'an Construction, was a subcontractor and main operator on site.
Other suspects include employees from the project's supervising party, the company that set up the scaffolding and unlicensed welders.
Stray sparks from welding tools are believed to have started the blaze at the apartment building on Jiaozhou Road which was being clad with insulating material. Flames spread quickly, engulfing the high-rise.
Lax safety supervision and mistakes by welders were to blame for the tragedy, according to a state investigation team.
Meanwhile, clean-up work started yesterday on the two high-rises next to the 28-floor building that caught fire to ensure hundreds of evacuated households can move back as soon as possible.
More than 50 workers will remove flammable material from the exterior of the buildings and safety checks will be carried out.
The manager in charge of the work, Pan Jianguo, who has banned smoking on site, said residents should be able to return by December 20.
More than 300 households who lived in the neighboring two buildings are now staying in 17 hotels or inns together with those who escaped from the blazing building.
When the accident happened, all the three buildings were being covered by polyurethane foam, a flammable material used for insulation.
The flammable material was blamed for the quick spread of the fire which was first ignited by sparks from welding.
The inferno lasted for more than four hours before firefighters put it under control.
Pan said the foam was firmly stuck to the buildings' surface and was "hard to remove."
The material was being sprayed onto the facade before being covered with concrete. The work had been almost half completed. Scaffolding had been set up to 48 meters high and the insulation layers had been applied to a height of 37.8 meters, workers said.
The buildings are about 85 meters high.
Zhou Xiaoli, an engineer with the clean-up project, said each floor was to be equipped with fire extinguishers.
So far no compensation plan has been announced for those living in the two neighboring buildings.
Families who lost relatives in the inferno are to get compensation of 960,000 yuan (US$144,384) for each victim.
Residents in the damaged building will also get compensation for their apartments either in cash or another apartment according to market prices, city officials said.
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