Jilin officials punished over colliery blasts
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E-mail Xinhua, July 8, 2013
More than 100 Chinese officials and enterprise executives found to be responsible for two deadly workplace accidents were prosecuted, sacked, demoted or given disciplinary punishment, the State Council said Saturday.
![Fire fighters are pictured next to a burnt poultry slaughterhouse owned by the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company in Mishazi Township of Dehui City in northeast China's Jilin Province, June 3, 2013. The death toll from the fire has risen to 119 as of 8 p.m. on Monday. Search and rescue work is under way. [Photo: Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20130708/7427ea210acc1344604122.jpg "Fire fighters are pictured next to a burnt poultry slaughterhouse owned by the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company in Mishazi Township of Dehui City in northeast China's Jilin Province, June 3, 2013. The death toll from the fire has risen to 119 as of 8 p.m. on Monday. Search and rescue work is under way. [Photo: Xinhua]") |
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Fire fighters are pictured next to a burnt poultry slaughterhouse owned by the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company in Mishazi Township of Dehui City in northeast China's Jilin Province, June 3, 2013. The death toll from the fire has risen to 119 as of 8 p.m. on Monday. Search and rescue work is under way. [Photo/Xinhua] |
The State Council, or China's cabinet, said in a statement it had approved an investigation report regarding the two deadly accidents in northeastern province of Jilin as well as a punishment proposal for those responsible for the accidents that left 174 people dead in total.
Thirty-five people including government officials and company executives would be transferred to the judicial authorities for prosecution, while 73 others, including Jilin's deputy governor Gu Chunli, deputy governor and police chief Huang Guanchun, and former top work safety official Jin Hua, have been given disciplinary sanctions.
The Jilin provincial government was ordered by the State Council to conduct self-criticism.
A fire ripped through a poultry plant owned by the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company in Dehui City on June 3 , leaving 121 dead and 76 injured.
The fire came months after two coal mine blasts that occurred on March 29 and April 1, respectively, at the Babao Coal Mine in Baishan City, Jilin Province, killed 53 people and injured 20 others.
Both cases are "extraordinarily significant liability accidents," the report said, indicating human errors, particularly the lack of work safety supervision, are to blame.
In the Dehui fire accident, an electrical short has been identified as the direct cause, and the short ignited "combustible goods" nearby and the heat set off "physical explosions" of ammonia equipment and pipelines, according to the report.
Meanwhile, lack of safety measures within the workshop as well as lax supervision by fire-control, construction, and work safety supervision authorities are also to blame for the accident, the report said.
Nineteen people including the company's board chairman Jia Yushan, general manager Zhang Yushen, and firefighting officials in Dehui and Changchun, capital of Jilin, as well as local government officials were subject to judicial punishment.
Apart from deputy governor Huang Guanchun, those who were given disciplinary punishment also include Changchun Mayor Jiang Qiaying, and Li Shutian, general director of the provincial firefighting brigade.
Dehui city's Party chief Zhang Dexiang, mayor Liu Changchun, and police chief Wang Hua'an were dismissed from their posts.
Dereliction of duty was also reported in the Babao Coal Mine blasts, according to the investigation report.
Due to insufficient fire-preventing measures, self-ignition of coal led to gas blasts in the mine, the report said, referring to the direct cause of the blasts.
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