A total of 3,021 people were killed and 4,404 others wounded in over 180,000 fires in China last year, causing direct financial losses worth more than 1.5 billion yuan.
Alarmed by the catastrophic consequences of the disasters, the firefighting authorities, under the Ministry of Public Security, have warned all units and individuals to step up efforts on fire control.
A responsibility system should be adopted by all units, while greater efforts should be made to educate all staff workers on the issue, the authorities said.
Some institutions and enterprises which became victims of the fires have been blamed for their ignorance of safety while trying hard to make money.
Some of the accidents were attributed to lack of knowledge about fire control among the public.
(Xinhua 01/21/2001)
