Authorities in Nanyang, a city in Central China's Henan province, have been told to promptly investigate the cause and hold accountable the relevant parties following a fire that occurred in a local primary school, resulting in the deaths of 13 students.

The fire broke out in a dormitory of Yingcai School in Nanyang's Fangcheng county and was extinguished at 11:38 pm on Friday.

The individual responsible for the private boarding school has been detained for investigation.

A student who was injured in the blaze was receiving treatment at a local hospital and reportedly was in stable condition.

A search on Qichacha, a platform offering information on companies in the country, found that the school was established in June 2012, with a registered capital of 1.07 million yuan ($150,000), and its business scope includes preschool education and elementary education.

A work team was sent to the scene during the night by the Ministry of Emergency Management to guide rescue and follow-up work. In addition, a citywide safety teleconference was held by the local government on Saturday, and a comprehensive safety inspection and rectification campaign was launched.

At the teleconference, local authorities were urged to find the cause of the fire as soon as possible and hold accountable any responsible parties.

Efforts were also urged to treat the injured comprehensively and handle the aftermath of the fire, including providing legal compensation to those affected, providing emotional reassurance and assisting the families of those who died or were injured.

On Sunday, the China Association for Non-Government Education issued a safety management advisory to the entire industry, emphasizing the need for proactive prevention, comprehensive governance, system improvement and the establishment of mechanisms to continuously strengthen institutional safeguards.

The advisory requires schools and institutions to have well-equipped safety personnel and to ensure funding support. It emphasizes safety awareness campaigns, enhancement of prevention skills, the development of emergency response plans, and the use of various safety drills to continually raise awareness of safety precautions and self-protection capabilities among teachers and students.

Additionally, it advocates transparency by publicly disclosing information, including schools' safety management systems, responsible personnel and emergency plans, to parents and society, fostering multidimensional supervision and a collaborative campus safety management system.

After the accident, authorities in several cities, including Luohe in Henan, Yichun in Jiangxi province, Panjin in Liaoning province, and Xi'an in Shaanxi province, promptly issued notices to conduct campus fire safety inspections and rectification work.

Luohe demanded an immediate comprehensive inspection and decisive rectification measures, focusing on key areas and places prone to accidents, particularly in places with high concentrations of people, such as schools, hospitals, nursing homes, shopping malls, hotels and staff dormitories.

Yichun asked its schools to ensure that all fire equipment operates normally and to promptly remove any obstacles to firefighting and evacuation, including anti-theft nets and decorations. Staff members on duty, dormitory supervisors and security personnel are required to strictly implement night patrols, ensuring the safety of students living on campus.

These cities also required focused rectification of prominent issues and hazards, including unauthorized use of fire, electricity and gas; irregularities in electrical wiring; disorderly or damaged installations; obstruction of evacuation routes; nonstandard configurations of firefighting equipment and facilities; and insufficient awareness of fire safety among employees and students.

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