Shoe Factory Fire Kills 28 in China's 'Shoe Capital,' Reviving Worker-Safety Alarm

At least 28 people were killed when fire tore through a shoe factory in southeastern China, officials said, a disaster that has once again exposed the deadly gaps in industrial safety at the heart of the country's vast manufacturing economy.

The blaze broke out around midday Thursday at a plant operated by footwear maker Huiteng in Jinjiang, a coastal city in Fujian province known as China's 'shoe capital' for the sprawling network of factories that supply sneakers and sandals to the world. Of the 239 people inside when the fire started, 213 were evacuated, but two of them later died in the hospital. Another 26 people initially reported missing were confirmed dead as crews combed the gutted building.

Preliminary findings pointed to a fire that ignited on the ground floor and raced upward with terrifying speed. Investigators said the shoe-making materials stored throughout the plant — glues, foams, rubber and fabric — were highly flammable, and that large quantities of goods had been piled in stairwells, choking the very escape routes workers needed and blocking firefighters trying to reach them.

Authorities said the people in charge of the company and 'other relevant personnel' had been taken into custody, and that the firm's bank accounts were frozen pending the investigation. Such swift detentions have become a standard response in China after mass-casualty industrial accidents, as the government seeks to project accountability and tamp down public anger.

The tragedy revives a painful pattern. Despite years of official campaigns promising tougher enforcement, China's factories and dormitories periodically erupt in fires that kill dozens, often because exits are locked, blocked or overwhelmed by stored inventory. Jinjiang's tightly packed industrial districts, where production floors and storage frequently share the same crowded buildings, have long worried safety inspectors.

For the families of the dead, the questions are grimly familiar: why the stairwells were clogged, why flammable stock sat unprotected, and whether inspections that were supposed to prevent exactly this had been carried out. The investigation continues, but the death toll already ranks among the deadliest factory fires China has recorded in recent years.