Chinese president Xi Jinping has called for an “all-out search and rescue effort” to find survivors after a fire broke out at a shoe factory in the eastern Chinese province of Fujian, killing 28 people.
More than 500 fire and rescue personnel were deployed on Thursday after a fire tore through the Huiteng Shoes factory in Jinjiang around noon, trapping dozens of workers inside. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
There were 237 factory workers and two visitors in the building when the fire broke out, local authorities said. The fire department personnel evacuated or rescued 213 people.
Of the 28 people who died, two were pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Video broadcast by state media showed the facade of the building of several floors charred black and covered in white smoke. Earlier footage showed fires were burning on multiple floors and the building was shrouded in thick, black smoke.
People were seen taking refuge near the windows and on the roof of the building as a fierce blaze raged through the lower floors.
The fire started on the first level of a five-floor concrete-structured building, where a workshop and a warehouse were located. The burning materials included shoe components, which are highly flammable and helped the fire spread quickly, according to CCTV.
A local fire department official said in an interview with the state broadcaster that raw material piled up in stairwells made it much harder for the firefighters to reach the flames and put them out.
Police have detained the shoe company’s owner and several other individuals suspected of being responsible for the fire, Xinhua reported.
"The cause of the accident should be identified as soon as possible and ... those responsible must be strictly held accountable," Mr Xi said, in remarks carried by Xinhua.
He said, “all regions and relevant departments must draw profound lessons from these incidents," adding that they should "implement rigorous and effective safety measures".
Mr Xi said there had been "several major industrial safety accidents" in China so far this year.
China launched a nationwide campaign to tackle fire hazards in high-rise buildings in November, following a devastating blaze that engulfed several tower blocks in Hong Kong and claimed 168 lives.
In May, an explosion at a fireworks plant in the city of Changsha in the central province of Hunan killed at least 37 people. In 2024, a fire at a refrigeration facility under construction killed 39 people in the city of Xinyu in the southeastern Jiangxi province.
Official data show that 18,261 people died in nearly 20,000 workplace accidents across the country in 2025, down from the previous year.
