Fire Kills 10 in China’s Xinjiang, Raising Questions About Lockdown

Online, Chinese internet users expressed anger and sadness, sharing articles with titles such as “Last night’s fire in Urumqi is the nightmare of all of Xinjiang’s people.” They circulated black-and-white images calling for a moment of silence to “express deep condolences to the 10 compatriots who died in the Urumqi fire.” Some residents offered their apartments to families who had lost their homes to the fire.

Questions about the cost of China’s zero-tolerance approach to fighting Covid are posing a challenge for China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as he enters his precedent-defying third term in power. Anger over lockdowns, as well as a widespread fear of the virus, have prompted large protests in the past two weeks by thousands of workers in the southern city of Guangzhou and at Apple’s largest iPhone factory, in Zhengzhou, in central China.

China has been grappling with a rise in Covid outbreaks, with cases around the country surging to record highs — though still low by global standards. The tally on Friday neared 32,700 cases, of which close to 1,000 were recorded in Xinjiang.

The Urumqi fire was the second major tragedy to be reported this week. On Monday, a fire in a factory operated by an industrial equipment manufacturer in Henan Province killed 38 people, in one of the deadliest fires in several years.

“In recent years, it’s become rare for fire accidents to cause more than 10 deaths,” said Cai Weida, a lawyer and expert on fire safety in China. Mr. Cai said that considering the small scale of the fire, the Fire Department’s response had been unusually slow. He attributed delays to a lack of space for fire trucks to maneuver, the unique challenges of a high-rise fire, and “road barriers.”

Chris Buckley contributed reporting.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/25/world/asia/china-fire.html