BEIJING, China
The deadliest fire to hit the Chinese capital in two decades killed 29 people in a hospital Tuesday, but most people didn’t hear about it until several hours later, and even then, the details were slim as authorities kept a tight lid on details.
As flames tore through the
Changfeng Hospital in Fengtai district from around 1 p.m. Tuesday, forcing
some to desperately clamber out of windows and huddle on air conditioning
units, state media kept silent and censors appeared to scrub the
internet of any mentions.
The extent of information
control and censorship came as a shock to internet users, as well
as Beijing residents, many of whom complained online that they had no idea a
deadly fire had erupted in their city until late on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, Beijing
officials offered more details about the fire during a news conference, which
was delayed for half an hour and lasted less than 20 minutes.
The blaze that engulfed an
inpatient building of Changfeng Hospital was caused by sparks from interior
renovation work that ignited flammable paint, said Zhao Yang, an official at
Beijing’s fire department, on Wednesday.
Twelve people were detained on
suspicion of gross negligence, including the hospital’s director
and construction workers, said Sun Haitao, an official with the Beijing Public
Security Bureau.
In videos shared on social
media Tuesday – before they were censored – smoke could be seen
billowing out of several hospital windows as people desperately attempted to
escape the blaze. At least one person appeared to use a rope made from
bedsheets to descend from a window onto a lower level terrace.
Others were seen either
huddling on air conditioning units positioned on the exterior of the building,
or trying to use the units to maneuver themselves from one level to the next.
One person was seen jumping from one level of the building to the lower
terrace.
The blaze is the deadliest in
Beijing in recent years, surpassing the toll from a fire in 2017 that killed 19
in a cramped two-story building in Daxing district in the capital’s southern
suburb.
It’s also one of the most
heavily censored incidents in recent years – and a sign of the tightening
controls on media in China under leader Xi Jinping, the country’s most
authoritarian leader in a generation.
The fire broke out in a busy
neighborhood in western Beijing around noon on Tuesday, but it wasn’t reported
by Chinese media until about eight hours after firefighters answered calls for
help.
At 8.43 p.m., a terse report
on the incident was published by the Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of
the Chinese capital – more than 7 hours after the blaze was put out and over 5
hours after rescue efforts wrapped up.
On Chinese social media, many
questioned why the public had been kept in the dark for so long.
“The incident happened after
12 p.m., and not a single media outlet reported on the breaking news at the
time,” said a top comment on Weibo, noting that most state media outlets only
carry standardized press releases after 9 p.m..
“The media has now basically
become copy machines for standardized press releases,” it added.
China’s social media platforms,
which had been fast to spread information about similar incidents in the past,
were also largely silent about the fire throughout the afternoon.
The information control is
extraordinary especially given the popularity of short video platforms and livestreaming
sites in China.
“It is often said that in the
era when everyone has a microphone, it is difficult to prevent news from
spreading, but now it seems that it is not that difficult after all,” a
commentator said on Wechat.
“Although 21 people have died,
as long as (the authorities) don’t announce it, it will be as if nothing has
happened in society,” the commentator said Tuesday before the death toll jumped
to 29.
In the short news conference
Wednesday, officials revealed details of those who died. Among them were 26
inpatients with an average age of 71. The oldest victim was 88. A nurse, a care
worker and a family also died in the fire, according to Li Zongrong, deputy
head of the Fengtai district government.
A total of 142 people were
evacuated, including 71 patients. As of Wednesday, 39 injured remained in
hospital, with three in critical condition, said Li Ang, deputy director of the
Beijing Municipal Heath Commission.
The family members of patients
at the Changfeng Hospital said even as the tragedy was unfolding, they were
oblivious.
On Tuesday evening, some
rushed to the hospital to search for their loved ones after learning about it
on the news, according to China Youth Daily, a state-run newspaper.
“Seven or eight hours have
passed and I didn’t receive a single phone call,” a relative was quoted as
saying.
But the hospital refused to
give them a list of names of the victims, and instead asked them to register
their information and wait for an official notice, the report said.
Following state media reports
on the incident, social media discussions remained tightly controlled. Footage
and photos of the fire were censored in real time, as were posts
critical of the government’s handling of the fire and subsequent
censorship.
Many questioned why the incident
did not become a trending topic on Weibo throughout Tuesday and Wednesday
morning.
Some compared the limited
social media visibility of the fire to the overwhelming coverage of a fatal
explosion at an Ohio metals plant in the US in February, which dominated Weibo
trending topics for days.
While some Chinese media
outlets have since published in-depth reporting on the aftermath of the fire,
the initial, lengthy silence has come at the dismay of some liberal Chinese
journalists.
On Wechat, a newspaper editor
in Beijing lamented the tightening grip of censorship and control of society.
“The most terrifying thing is
not the death of 29 people, but eight hours of silence,” the editor wrote in a
post.
“The former is an accident and
dereliction of duty, while the latter is a deliberate act with full effort, to
unscrupulously show off its ability of social control, to treat us like deaf,
blind, fools and worthless subjects. Accidents can be prevented, but the
deliberate act may become the norm.” - CNN
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