| Date | 25 December 2000 |
|---|---|
| Time | 9:35 p.m. (UTC+08:00) |
| Venue | Dongdu Commercial Building |
| Location | Zhongzhou Road, Luoyang, China |
| Coordinates | 34°41′02″N112°28′25″E / 34.683931°N 112.473680°E |
| Also known as | 洛阳东都商厦“12·25”特大火灾 |
| Type | Fire |
| Deaths | 309 [1] |
| Non-fatal injuries | 7 [1] |
The Luoyang Christmas fire was a major fire that occurred in Luoyang, in China's Henan Province, on 25 December 2000, killing 309 people. [2]
Dongdu Commercial Building was a commercial building, completed on 3 November 1990, then as Laocheng Mall. Prior to that, the site had mostly consisted commercial slums and before that, it was the site of a Fire God temple. [3] It was located on the busiest part of Zhongzhou Road. [4] The building had four floors above ground and two floors below ground. The building had four stairwells, each in one corner of the building. Fire doors existed at the entrance to stairwells for below ground level 1, above ground levels 1, 2 and 3. The southwest, southeast stairwells were fitted with a steel gate between the third and fourth floors. [1] A lift existed at the northeast corner of the building, though it was out of service at the time of the fire. [5]
Below ground level 2 was occupied by a furniture store and also as goods storage by the Dennis department store, below ground level 1 to above ground level 2 were also used for retail by the department store. Level 3 was sparsely rented out to retailers. Level 4 contained the building managment on the southern and eastern side, a conference room on the northern side, a KTV club on the west side and the dance club in the centre. [1]
Throughout the 1990s, four modification directives had been given by the fire department. [3] Seeing a lack of action by the building owners, the fire safety inspector had written to the Luoyang city government, pleading them to shut down the building to no avail. [6] Fire hazards found on inspections were a lack of a closeable firewall between the below ground and above ground levels, lack of automatic water sprinkler systems for the below ground levels, a damaged and unrepaired fire alarm system and three of the four stairwells to level 4 being locked. [7]
Due to mismanagment, the building owners had struggled to operate the building successfully, eventually causing the unemployment of 541 workers there. [7] The contract to jointly operate the building with the Dennis Department Store was intended to improve the building's environment and make it more attractive to consumers. Renovations started in 6 November, trial operations started on 25 December and it was intended to officially open it on 28 December. To prepare for the opening, many employees of the stores worked overnight to prepare the stock and shops. To separate the retail from the storage section for the soon to open department store, the retail manager of Dennis instructed a welder, Wang Chengtai to weld a metal plate at the stairwell between below ground level 1 and 2. However, the plate used to close the stairwell had small two holes in it, which were left as is until 25 December. [4]
On the night of the incident, over 400 people were celebrating Christmas in the dance club, [1] over its rated capacity of 200 people. [7] Meanwhile, Wang Chengtai was checking the electrical circuitry around the department store. At 8:20pm, he was told by the director of Dennis to weld shut the two holes in the metal plate at the stairwell. As he was the only welder at the time, he was told to find some assistants to help him with the welding; for that, he enlisted the help of two fresh produce workers of the department store. After some initial troubles with powering on the blowtorch, Wang successfully turned it on with the help of Zhou Jian, an electrician also working that night. He subsequently tested the blowtorch, aiming it at one of the holes in the steel plate from about a fist away, emitting a shower of sparks through the hole and confirming that it was working as normal. [4] Behind the plate, the level was filled with various fabrics and woods products, with ignition temperatures ranging from 205 to 430℃, while the temperature of welding sparks have a temperature of 800℃ several seconds after leaving the electrode. [8]
At 9pm, as Wang was preparing the plate for welding, a construction worker came by and questioned Wang on whether it would be safe to weld, given that the contents behind the plate were too dark to see. As neither of them had torches, Wang passed a sparking welding rod through the hole for the construction worker to check, on which he noticed a bundle of processed wood smouldering, and immediately called out to nearby workers to put the fire out. While many rushed to try fight the fire, they faced difficulties, as they were only able to pour water through the two holes in the plate; a lack of pressure in the fire hoses resulted in the initial efforts at firefighting being futile. The fire brigades were only called around 30 minutes after the smouldering was noticed, after the Managing vice-director of Dennis arrived at 9:20pm on a routine visit in preparations for opening. [4]
Though the smoke was starting to spread to below ground level 1 through the stairwell where the welding was taking place, the workers above ground were not yet aware yet of the danger, continuing to sort stock despite others attempting to put the fire out. Eventually, the deputy area manager of Dennis called for all workers to evacuate over the store's internal speaker system, leaving only the security staff to man the evacuation process of Dennis workers. Once the workers were evacuated to the plaza in front of the building, a roll call was attempted, but due to the chaos, it was not completed. [4]
The director of Dongdu, upon noticing the smoke coming out of the northeast stairwell, ordered the door closed and opened the southwest and southeast doors. He also ordered the power to the whole building to be switched off. As the staff and construction workers of Dennis and the managment of Dongdu made an escape, the hundreds of people partying and the office workers on level four were forgotten about, with no-one to warn them or to unlock the locked gates or doors, trapping them in darkness and dense smoke. [4] [7] Alternatively, according to Henan investigators, the fire burnt out the insulators of wiring at 9:38pm, causing the blackout, [8] though the people above the Dennis store levels were indeed forgotten. [5]
The fire was extinguished by 12:45 a.m Tuesday. Some 800 police officers and firefighters and 26 fire engines rushed to the scene after receiving the call. [9]
According to a report by fire investigators from Henan, up until 9:26pm, the fire was still able to be brought under control with handheld extinguishers; up until to 9:32pm, if fire sprinkers existed. Afterwards, the fire would have spread further north, creating a chimney effect with the northwest and northeast stairwells, all of which only had fire doors on certain levels. This would have propagated the smoke upwards, to level 4, where the nightclub and conference rooms were. A flashover occured at 9:38pm, reaching up to 40 Pa, blowing open windows on below ground level 1 that had been previously sealed by 1 cm of concrete; even more smoke was pushed up into level 4. Had a fire door existed for each floor, this would've significantly slowed the spread of the fire and smoke; the fire doors on below ground level 1, level 1 and 2 had kept the floors safe from fire though as a result also funneled all the smoke up to level 4. [8]
On level 4, tens people died on the spot from smoke inhalation. Temperatures inside the nightclub was determined to have been at least 80℃, up to 140℃ based on melting of plastic elements in the area. On level 2, temperatures near the stairwell reached 200 to 300℃ evidenced by charring on the fire door. Chemicals in the smoke included CO, HCN, CoCl2, Acrolein, H2S and others. This was estimated to have taken only 6 seconds to reach level 4, and 3.3 minutes to subsequently envelop the whole nightclub. With only one door to enter the nightclub and only one unlocked stairwell, any opportunity to escape was rapidly lost. [7] [8] Out of 309 deaths, 308 were on the top floor; 248 people died in the main nightclub hall, 26 in the smaller nightclub room, 23 at the locked southwest stairwell, 11 along the corridor on the west side of the building and 1 in a karaoke room. The victims all showed signs of carbon monoxide poisoning and had noticeable soot around their nasal area. [5]
An emergency meeting was held early Tuesday morning in the province and in the afternoon, Shi Wanpeng, vice-minister of the State Economic and Trade Commission, also arrived in Luoyang. To prevent similar accidents, the Ministry of Public Security released an urgent circular, asking local governments to spare no efforts to ensure safety during the New Year's Day and the Spring Festival holidays. [9]
Virtually all nightclubs in Luoyang were closed in the aftermath of the fire, due to mass checks finding fire hazards in almost all of them. [6] The building was repaired and reopened for business after the fire, however, very few tenants returned; nearby streets had also been impacted, with the area no longer being bustling. Fire sprinklers were still only partially installed, as funding ran out before the system was fitted to the entire building. [3]
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast. As of December 31, 2018, Luoyang had a population of 6,888,500 inhabitants with 2,751,400 people living in the built-up area made of the city's five out of six urban districts and Yanshi District, now being conurbated. By the end of 2022, Luoyang Municipality had jurisdiction over 7 municipal districts, 7 counties and 1 development zone. The permanent population is 7.079 million.
On Monday, December 1, 1958, a fire broke out at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, Illinois, shortly before classes were to be dismissed for the day. The fire originated in the basement near the foot of a stairway. The elementary school was operated by the Archdiocese of Chicago and had an enrollment of approximately 1600 students. A total of 92 pupils and 3 nuns ultimately died when smoke, heat, fire, and toxic gases cut off their normal means of egress through corridors and stairways. Many more were injured when they jumped from second-floor windows which, because the building had a raised basement, were nearly as high above ground as a third floor would be on level ground, approximately 25 feet (7.6 m).
An emergency exit in a building or other structure is a special exit used during emergencies such as fires. The combined use of regular and emergency exits allows for faster evacuation, and emergency exits provide alternative means of evacuation if regular exits are inaccessible.
The Garley Building fire took place on 20 November 1996 in the 16-storey Garley commercial building located at 232–240 Nathan Road, Jordan, Hong Kong. The fire caused 41 deaths and 81 injuries. It is considered the worst building fire in Hong Kong during peacetime. The fire damaged the bottom two floors and the top three floors of the building, while the middle floors remained relatively intact.
The stack effect or chimney effect is the movement of air into and out of buildings through unsealed openings, chimneys, flue-gas stacks, or other containers, resulting from air buoyancy. Buoyancy occurs due to a difference in indoor-to-outdoor air density resulting from temperature and moisture differences. The result is either a positive or negative buoyancy force. The greater the thermal difference and the height of the structure, the greater the buoyancy force, and thus the stack effect. The stack effect helps drive natural ventilation, air infiltration, and fires.
The Kader Toy Factory fire occurred on 10 May 1993 at a factory in Thailand. It is considered the worst industrial factory fire in history, killing 188 persons, and injuring 469. Most of the victims were young female workers from rural families.
On Tuesday, 18 November 1947, a fire engulfed the Ballantynes department store in central Christchurch, New Zealand, resulting in the death of 41 people. It remains the deadliest fire in New Zealand's history.
The Karamay fire of 8 December 1994 at the Friendship Theatre in Karamay, Xinjiang, China, was among the most notorious fires in China. Its notoriety derives partly from the fact that that the schoolchildren, who were entertaining visiting officials, were ordered to remain seated when the fire started to allow the visiting officials to walk out first. The fire killed 325, including 288 schoolchildren.
The Brown Building is a ten-story building that is part of the campus of New York University (NYU), which owns it. It is located at 23–29 Washington Place, between Greene Street and Washington Square East in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, and is best known as the location of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911, which killed 146 people.
The Sennichi Department Store Building fire occurred in Sennichimae, Minami-ku, Osaka, Japan on May 13, 1972. The fire killed at least 118 people and injured another 78. It was the deadliest department store fire in Japan. The building that housed the department store also contained various other businesses, including a cabaret. All of the victims had been in the cabaret.
The 2010 Shanghai fire was a fire on 15 November 2010 that destroyed a 28-story high-rise apartment building in the heart of Shanghai, China, killing at least 58 people and injuring more than 70 others. Most of the residents were retired state school senior educators. It is remembered as an iconic high-rise fire in China in the 2010s.
On 3 June 2013, a fire at the Jilin Baoyuanfeng (吉林宝源丰) poultry processing plant in Mishazi (米沙子镇), a town about 35 km (22 mi) from Changchun, in Jilin province, People's Republic of China, killed at least 120 people. More than 60 others were hospitalised with injuries.
On May 13, 2015, a fire broke out at the Kentex manufacturing factory in Valenzuela, Metro Manila, Philippines. 72 people were killed in the fire, making the incident the joint-second worst fire disaster in Philippine history alongside the Manor Hotel fire in 2001; only the Ozone Disco Club fire in 1996 had claimed more lives.
The Luoyang Bridge, also known as Wan'an Bridge, is located in Quanzhou, Fujian province, China. The stone bay bridge is situated at the mouth of Luoyang River. Being the first stone bay bridge in China, it enjoys the reputation of "one of the four ancient bridges of China".
On 25 August 2018, a fire broke out at the Beilong Hot Spring Hotel in Harbin. Located in the city's Taiyang Island (太阳岛) resort area, the four-storey brick-and-concrete hotel mostly accommodates domestic tourists and was hosting over 100 people at the time, many of whom were visiting for an annual marathon. The fire resulted in 20 deaths and 23 injuries.
On the night of December 28, 2017, a fire tore through an apartment building in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Thirteen people died, and fourteen others were injured. At the time, it was the city's deadliest fire in 25 years, being surpassed a little over four years later by another apartment fire in the Bronx that killed seventeen people.
The Continental Engineering Corporation Tower, or CEC Tower for short, is a skyscraper office building in Daan District, Taipei, Taiwan. The height of building is 140 m (460 ft), and it comprises 31 floors above ground as well as six levels below ground. It is the corporate headquarters of Continental Engineering Corporation. As of February 2021, it is the 23rd tallest building in Taipei.
The Hengyang "11.3" especially serious fire was a fire that occurred in Hengzhou Tower, Hengyang, Hunan Province on the early morning of November 3, 2003. The fire did not result in the death of any civilians, though 20 firefighters were killed. The subsequent collapse of the building was listed as an 'especially serious collapse and fire' by government regulators, the public security bureau and various inspectors, and the death of 20 firefighters was the largest loss of firefighters in China since 1949.
The 61st Regiment Farm fire and stampede was a fire that occurred on 18 February 1977 at 20:15 Xinjiang Time in a public hall showing a movie. The direct cause of the fire was the regiment hesitating to dispose of the memorial wreaths of the late Mao Zedong for five months, and eventually the wreaths were ignited by a spinning top-like firecracker set off by a 12-year-old boy at the Chinese New Year celebrations. The farm was a military-agricultural colony run by the Xinjiang 61st regiment; hence, most deaths were among the military brats. Overall, 694 died and 161 became disabled; among the dead were 597 of the 1,600 schoolchildren on the farm. This is also the deadliest fire in China after 1949, one of the deadliest disasters in Chinese history, and one of the deadliest fireworks accidents.
