28 people died after a fire tore through Huiteng Shoe’s factory in Jinjiang, Fujian, where 239 people were inside; authorities rescued 213, including two who later died in hospital.
The blaze started on the first floor of the five-story building, where a workshop and warehouse stored highly flammable shoe materials; CCTV said piled-up sole material in stairwells hampered firefighters.
183 firefighters and 35 vehicles extinguished open flames after about four hours, and more than 500 people joined the rescue and search operation as President Xi Jinping ordered a full investigation and accountability.
Xinhua said the factory owner and other people in charge were taken into custody and the company’s accounts frozen after one of China’s deadliest recent industrial fires.
The disaster adds to China’s persistent workplace-safety toll: official data show 18,261 deaths in nearly 20,000 workplace accidents in 2025, after major fatal incidents in Hunan and Jiangxi.