The Guardian-Thirteen children die in Chinese boarding school fire
January 20, 2024 2 min 245 words
这起河南省中部寄宿学校火灾悲剧令人痛心。报道指出，所有13名遇难者都是三年级学生，引起社会广泛关注。火灾发生在农村地区，再次揭示了中国教育系统中存在的一些严重问题。对于这类校园灾害，不仅需要加强建筑安全标准，更需要全面审视学校管理和监管体系。此次事件中，学校负责人已被拘留，但要深入追责，对相关责任者进行彻底的调查和追究责任。中国频繁发生火灾等意外事故，这提示了一个更广泛的社会安全问题，需要政府和社会各方共同努力，确保人们的生命安全和教育环境的质量。希望相关部门能够采取切实有效的措施，防范此类悲剧再次发生。
Thirteen pupils have died after a fire broke out in dormitories at a primary school in central Henan province, Chinese state media reported.
All of the dead were third-grade students, a teacher at Yingcai school told Zonglan news, a state-backed media outlet from Hebei province. One person rescued from the scene was being treated in hospital, China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, said.
The fire in the rural Fangcheng district started on Friday night and was put out just before midnight. The boarding school’s owner was detained, CCTV said.
The school gives students, many of whom are from rural areas, a break every two weeks but this was not a break weekend, the Paper said, citing several local residents.
The school, in the town of Dushu, caters primarily to students in the elementary grades, though it has an attached kindergarten, according to the school’s WeChat page.
Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China.
In November, 26 people died and dozens were sent to hospital after a fire at a coal company office in northern China’s Shanxi province.
Last July, 11 people died after the roof of a school gym collapsed in the north-east. The month before, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the north-west killed 31 people.
Last April, a hospital fire in Beijing killed 29 people and forced desperate survivors to jump out of windows to escape.