INDIFFERENCE TO HAZARDS
The managers of the poultry plant, as well as local supervisory authorities, seem to have paid little attention to preventing and handling risks.
The Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company had over 50 tonnes of ammonia stored in the workshop where the fire occurred.
Ammonia, which both caustic and hazardous, must be stored under high pressure or at a low temperature. However, few people in the factory were aware of the dangers of the substance and the workers were never informed.
"I knew ammonia can be used as a refrigerant, but I had no idea that the tanks might explode," said Chai Jinfeng, an employee who barely escaped the fire.
Employee "Qin Dalong" (alias) said he was on duty inside a warehouse refrigerator when he saw dark smoke pouring out of the workshop. He and dozens of his colleagues ran out of the warehouse, hearing loud explosions just minutes later.
Like Chai, nearly all survivors interviewed by Xinhua said they had never received any training on fire prevention. The company has 1,200 employees, but none of them have participated in evacuation drills since the company became operational in 2009, according to some survivors.
"It was a mess and I was totally stunned. All the lights went off and I fumbled along the wall and barely escaped using my instincts," said an employee surnamed Yu.
"I had no survival skills and no one trained us," she said.
LAX SUPERVISION
Lax supervision is also being blamed for the heavy casualties.
The company was not recognized by local authorities as a company that requires high-level fire prevention. In addition, flammable construction materials contributed to the spread of the fire and insufficient fire prevention equipment made the casualties worse, according to a local government official.
The poor design of the plant's exits made escaping difficult, said Gao Guangbin, Communist Party of China (CPC) chief of the provincial capital of Changchun, at a meeting held on Tuesday.
"All construction materials used to build the workshop were flammable, creating an enormous fire hazard," he said.
A worker at the company earns about 2,000 to 3,000 yuan (326 to 489 U.S. dollars) a month, an income that is quite attractive to locals who are used to earning a meager living by farming.
The blaze, however, has changed the opinions of many who had hoped to earn more by working at a factory.
Wang Huihua, 43, was lucky enough to survive the accident. But he said he has a hard time sleeping. "Every time I try to close my eyes, I see huge flames," he said.
"I won't do this kind of work any more after leaving the hospital," he said. "I will stick to farming and I will treat my parents and kids better."
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