Fireworks spark Chinese blazes

BEIJING – The Chinese love of pyrotechnics and the country’s winter drought have proved a combustible combination for Lunar New Year holiday celebrations, which have been ushered in by a wave of mostly small fires.

The Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday reported 11,800 fires nationwide during the weeklong holiday, up from 7,480 the previous year, according to figures quoted by the official New China news agency. In the parched capital of Beijing alone, there were 194 fires, almost double the number last year.

The hazards are complicated this year by a drought that is also threatening China’s winter wheat crop. Northern China has seen no major precipitation since October. In addition, the use of flammable insulation material has been blamed for a number of building fires – most lethally in Shanghai, where a fire in November killed at least 58 people in a high-rise apartment building.

“The drought, the fireworks, the shoddy building materials. This is a bad combination,” said Ma Jun, a prominent Chinese environmentalist. “We need to change that.”

This year’s tragedies might be the impetus for change. Six firefighters died Saturday night battling a forest blaze in Zhejiang province that authorities believe was started by fireworks. Fireworks are also suspected in a blaze that heavily damaged a 1,000-year-old temple Monday morning in the eastern city of Fuzhou. In the northeastern city of Shenyang, a five-star hotel in the tallest real estate complex there was gutted after fireworks ignited in a parking lot landed on a roof.

Authorities have tried periodically to banish fireworks from the cities. But the right to ignite one’s own private stash of fireworks is cherished as sacred by many Chinese, whose folklore has it that the loud bangs scare off evil spirits. A 12-year ban on fireworks in the capital was lifted in 2006.