Dozens in China disciplined over deadly January fire; Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control

Dozens in China disciplined over deadly January fire; Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
by AFP Staff Writers
Shanghai (AFP) Sept 21, 2024

Chinese authorities have disciplined more than 50 officials and arrested 10 people suspected of criminal liability in a deadly fire that killed dozens in January, state media reported Saturday.

The fire in the city of Xinyu in central China's Jiangxi province trapped many people, killing 39 and injuring nine.

Public prosecutors approved the arrest of 10 people, including representatives of the businesses that owned the store and hotel where the blaze took place, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Multiple officials from the local government have been sacked, with a total of 55 public officials "seriously held accountable", CCTV said.

State news agency Xinhua reported at the time that the cause of the blaze had been the "illegal" use of fire by workers in the building's basement.

The Jiangxi government has since vowed to "fully protect the safety of local residents' lives and property", CCTV said.

Fires are common in China due to lax safety standards and poor enforcement.

The Jiangxi fire occurred the same month as a late-evening blaze at a school in central China's Henan province that killed 13 children as they slept in a dormitory.

In July, a fire killed at least 16 people at a mall in the southwestern Sichuan province.

Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
Lisbon (AFP) Sept 20, 2024 - Portugal has brought under control the remaining forest fires it battled this week in the north of the country, rescuers said on Friday.

The wildfires, which sprang up over the weekend fed by crushing heat and strong winds, killed five people, four of them firefighters. Around 100 people were injured, 14 of them seriously.

"All the situations that were still active yesterday and today at dawn have been brought under control," National Civil Protection Commander Andre Fernandes said at a press briefing.

Four blazes engulfed the Aveiro region, south of the city of Porto, across a front of around 100 kilometres (60 miles) and ravaged 20,000 hectares (49,400 acres) of land, the EU's Copernicus climate monitor estimated on Thursday.

While temperatures have dropped and rain showers have mitigated the heat, a strong downpour could trigger over the next few days landslides in areas affected by the fires, Fernandes warned.

More than 120,000 hectares across Portugal had been burnt by wildfires since the start of the year, according to the National Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation.

This week's fires wreaked much of the damage, as only 10,000 hectares had been destroyed at the end of August.

This year has already surpassed the destructive year of 2017, when 500,000 hectares burned in an inferno that killed more than 100 people.

The Portuguese government on Friday declared a day of national mourning, and thanked France, Italy, Spain and Morocco for sending a dozen water bombers as backup.

Scientists have long warned that human-induced climate change is driving longer-lasting, more intense and more frequent heatwaves, along with other extreme weather events.