China urges tighter full-chain safety oversight for fireworks

BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Office of the State Council Work Safety Committee and the Ministry of Emergency Management held an emergency video meeting on Thursday, urging strengthened efforts to prevent and defuse safety risks involving fireworks and tighter full-chain supervision to avert accidents.

Following recent fireworks accidents in Donghai County in east China's Jiangsu Province and Yicheng City in central China's Hubei Province, the meeting called for enhanced accident warnings and for lessons learned to be conveyed level by level to townships, sub-districts and every fireworks retail outlet.

The meeting stressed that fireworks retail outlets are strictly prohibited from operating in mixed-use buildings that have retail space on the ground floor and residential units above.

Fireworks must not be stored in excessive quantities, displayed outside shops, or set off within 100 meters of retail outlets, in designated no-fireworks zones, or in crowded places, according to the meeting.

It also required dedicated staff to maintain on-site supervision and strict control over the number of customers entering shops.

The meeting required emergency management departments at the provincial, municipal and county levels to form inspection teams to conduct comprehensive checks at every fireworks site, with a particular focus on retail outlets where people live on the premises.

Localities have been urged to strengthen full-chain safety management covering the production, storage, transportation and sales of fireworks, with particular emphasis on safe setting-off, and to crack down firmly on non-compliant fireworks use in high-risk areas such as around fireworks shops, crowded places and high-rise buildings. ■