Shenzhen Gov't Make Arrests After Deadly Fires

In the past few days, the Shenzhen government has taken action and arrested more than 2o people in association with recent unexpected fires in the SEZ.

The first action, 13 people were arrested for the fatal fire that killed party-goers at a Longgang night club a week ago. As China Daily reports, Investors, club workers and founders were all taken into custody for their involvment and neglegence in the event.

As of 12 am on Friday, family members of 31 victims of the fire had signed compensation agreements with the local government, according to the Longgang district authorities.

The Longgang district government is paying kin of those who died 250,000 yuan.

The property of Wu Wang Club has been frozen and the lawsuit over the fire is expected to take a while. Family members of the victims can file a suit and claim for compensation from the frozen club property. The club will pay back the government after the court ruling, said Huang Wei, spokesman for the Longgang district government.

Some 43 people injured in the fire are still in hospital. Four of them are on life support. Medical experts assigned by the Ministry of Health said the injury to their nervous system as a result of suffocation is most likely beyond recovery.

Despite a citywide drive to preempt such incidents following the nightclub fire, a fire broke out at an old factory of a Taiwan-funded company in Shajing of Shenzhen's Bao'an district around 4 am on Friday. It was put out in five hours. There were no casualties.

On the following day, Xinghua reported the arrest of officials allegedly involved a factory fire that happened back in February in Shenzhen.

Nine people including four government officials have been arrested in connection with a fatal factory fire that claimed 15 lives in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, in February.

The four officials, identified as Huang Hanguang, Zeng Hongbo, Lin Guozhong and Yi Rao, were from the city's fire fighting bureau and environment protection bureau. They were arrested on charges of neglecting their duties and misconduct, said the press office of the Shenzhen government on Sunday.

As I have seen personally in the past few days, hopefully this kind of attention will bring greater awareness for fire safety in the city.